The Zooplankton Group started to take shape in 1994 and since it has accumulated a solid experience in the study of marine and estuarine ecosystems, mainly in the field of zooplankton ecology, investigating the relationship between zooplankton populations and environmental factors, as well as their contribution to plankton food web dynamics.

During the last decade we have investigated the response of zooplankton to natural and anthropogenic stress at various scales of temporal and spatial variability, evaluating changes occurred not only in the structure of the community, but also in the distribution and production of specific populations.

An ongoing monitoring programme of environmental variables and plankton in the estuaries of Bilbao and Urdaibai (Bay of Biscay), that was initiated more than a decade ago, has allowed the analysis of the effect of climate in changes occurred in the plankton at longer time scales.

Another field of study is trophic interactions, focusing mainly in the impact of the zooplankton as herbivorous consumers and in their role in the diet of larvae of commercially important fish.