Gal Vered holds a PhD in Marine Biology from Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral research examined the impacts of plastic pollution and chemical additives on tropical coral reefs. As a postdoctoral fellow at MARE-Madeira with the Climate Change & Human Pressures Team, she examines how anthropogenic pollutants, including plastics, chemicals, and metals, shape the ecology of marine benthic invertebrates, from species-specific effects to their wider role in driving changes in marine ecosystems and biodiversity loss.