Lorenzo Bramanti
Scientist, Italy
If I have to say something about why I do what I do, I can only say that I had no great vocation, mission or call to protect our big blue brother... I have always lived by the sea. I got on a boat for the first time when I was 6 months old, and I still haven't got off. My friends had motorbikes, I had a small Zodiac.
On my father's side, my grandfather was a rebreather diver in the Italian Navy Seals. On my mother's side, they were all university professors. And my father dived and fished, as did my aunt and uncle. I'm a scientist. I don't seek enlightenment, I don't have a mission. I am a "curiosus naturae": I like to understand how things work, and I can't live far from the sea.
Since 2010, I have been working with the GFCM (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean) at the FAO on the management and conservation of Mediterranean red coral, and with the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) on the development of Marine Protected Areas in Djibouti (Africa). I also work as a scientific consultant with the Djibouti Port Authority in the assessment of shipwreck damage to the Djibouti coral reef.
I have always lived by the sea. I got on a boat for the first time when I was 6 months old and I still haven't got off. My friends had motorbikes, I had a small Zodiac.
I am a member of the scientific committee of the Marie Cerbere/Banyuls reserve and the LABEX CORAIL laboratory of excellence.
I am the author of more than 80 articles published in international peer-reviewed journals, co-author of two books on corals and co-editor of two SPRINGER books on marine animal forests.
My research has always focused on corals, from individuals (ecophysiology, life history traits) to populations (modelling of population and metapopulation dynamics), including functional ecology (role of coral forests), both in the Mediterranean and in the tropics, with the main aim of understanding population dynamics and predicting their changes under climate change and human disturbance scenarios.
In recent years, thanks to the French government's authorisation to use rebreathers for research diving, I have extended my interests to mesophotic coral ecosystems inhabiting depths between 50 and 150 metres. I participated in the DEEPHOPE expedition (French Polynesia) in 2019 with the association Under the Pole.
I was the organiser of the first workshop on mesophotic coral ecosystems in the Mediterranean, which was held in Banyuls sur Mer in July 2021. I was also the leader of the French fleet expedition to explore mesophotic ecosystems in Cape Verde, which took place in 2022.
For the next 10 years I will be the scientific director of the DEEPLIFE Under the Pole (UTP) expedition, which will focus on mesophotic animal forests around the world.
I have been diving since I was a kid, became a PADI Instructor in 1996 and an SSI Instructor in 2007. I was certified as a Closed-Circuit Rebreather diver in 2010 and I am certified as an Advanced European Scientific Diver (AESD), AAUS diver (American Association for Underwater Science), and French professional diver (Class IIIB).
