On May 12th, the new 70 approved COST Actions in the latest call (2022) were announced. Cristina Pita (CESAM/DBIO) is the proposer of one of these actions, the COST Action “Rethinking the Blue Economy: Socio-Ecological Impacts and Opportunities”, which aims to rethink the blue economy in two distinct ways:
Firstly, by assessing the impact of the blue economy on coastal societies;
Secondly, by exploring opportunities arising from innovations and potential synergies between established and emerging marine activities. Scientific interactions focus on five themes: 1) maritime professions; 2) food security and sustainable blue consumption; 3) port cities and coastal communities; 4) fisheries governance and emerging activities; and 5) climate change and natural hazards.
On June 9th, the new COST actions, including all memoranda of understanding, will be available on the COST website, and the first Management Committee meetings will start between September and November 2023.
Text by: CESAM with collaboration from Cristina Pita
What are the most suitable areas in Ria de Alvor for bivalve and gilt-head seabream aquaculture in the face of climate change? A research team from the Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) at the University of Aveiro (UA) has answered the question raised by many producers in an area particularly sensitive to sea warming and rising water levels. In this scenario, the study warns that bivalve production could be greatly affected.
Located on the Algarve coast, Ria de Alvor currently offers very good conditions for the development of ecological and sustainable aquaculture of seafood and fish. However, unlike other coastal areas, there were no studies evaluating the medium and long-term impact of climate change on the viability of Ria for aquaculture. Until now.
The work of the Estuarine Coastal Modelling Group in the Physics Department at UA, signed by researchers Ana Picado, Humberto Pereira, Magda Sousa, and João Miguel Dias, identifies the most suitable areas, under current conditions and in the context of climate change, for aquaculture cultivation of bivalves such as oysters and mussels, as well as fish, particularly gilt-head seabream. The work was carried out using a numerical model that simulated the main biogeochemical characteristics of this estuarine system.
João Miguel Dias, researcher at DFIS and CESAM and one of the authors of the study, indicates that “this work results from an ongoing research line in the Estuarine Coastal Modelling Group aimed at promoting sustainable growth of aquaculture activity in Portuguese estuarine and lagoon systems.”
This research line emerged with funding obtained through the AquiMap project, which, along with several doctoral theses in this field, resulted in several publications in high-impact indexed scientific journals on the aquaculture potential of Ria de Aveiro, the Sado Estuary, the Rias Baixas, or Ria de Alvor.
According to researcher Ana Picado, also from DFis/CESAM, the results of this research indicate that “the most suitable regions for aquaculture are located along the main channel axis of Ria de Alvor, although there is seasonal variability in the results obtained, depending on the species considered.” During winter and autumn, “bivalves are more susceptible to environmental conditions than fish.” On the other hand, “spring presents the most favorable environmental conditions for the production of the species considered.”
The researcher also highlights that future projections point to “a general decrease in the potential of Ria de Alvor for bivalve species aquaculture production during winter and for mussels during summer, mainly due to the predicted increase in water temperature.” On the other hand, “it is not expected that climate change-induced impacts will affect gilt-head seabream production.”
In partnership with the University of Aveiro, the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF, I.P.) is conducting a study to better understand the general perception of society regarding issues associated with stray animals, such as abandoned animals or those born without an owner.
The Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF, I.P.) and the University of Aveiro, through its Department of Biology and the CESAM – Center for Environmental and Marine Studies, are conducting a survey as part of the work for the National Stray Animals Census 2023 – a project funded by the Permanent Forest Fund (now integrated into the Environmental Fund). The survey focuses on the general perception of society regarding issues associated with stray animals. The initiative is based on a basic concept, that of stray animals, which includes abandoned animals, those born without an owner or guardian, and those with an owner but frequenting public and/or private areas other than those of their owners.
The specific objectives of the survey are twofold:
To gather information about social perceptions regarding stray dogs and cats;
To understand which approaches might be more suitable for managing their populations while safeguarding their well-being.
The team of technicians and researchers involved expects that completing the survey may take between 10 to 15 minutes.
Citizens’ participation will be voluntary and confidential, with measures taken to ensure information security. Specifically, anonymity will be maintained in all phases of the study, from data collection in the surveys to analysis and publication of results – all collected data is anonymous.
Considering that each species has its own particularities, two surveys have been prepared: one about stray dogs and another about stray cats.
The agreement for scientific and technological cooperation between Portugal and France, established in 2004, envisions both countries establishing a program aimed at promoting collaboration between teachers and researchers, including young researchers in higher education institutions and related research institutions in Portugal and France.
One of the intended objectives is to foster exchange actions among researchers by supporting their mobility within the scope of international projects.
The projects will have a maximum duration of 24 months, with annual renewals possible. The annual funding from FCT per project is €2,000.
Applications should be prepared jointly by the responsible researchers from both countries and submitted to the implementing bodies of the Agreement. Thus, the Portuguese team should submit their application to FCT, and the foreign team to the relevant organization in their country.
The application to be submitted to FCT should be submitted through the application submission portal by 17:00 on June 26, 2023, Lisbon time.
The University of Aveiro (UA) is one of the institutions that is part of the international network IMFAHE (International Mentoring Foundation for the Advancement of Higher Education), within which several members of UA, including professors and researchers in the fields of Biomedicine and Engineering, participated in the 2021-2022 edition of this program.
In that edition, researchers Alexandra Monteiro and Vera Rodrigues (CESAM/DAO) were part of one of the winning teams of the “IMFAHE’s Nodal Award-Shark Tank 2022” with the idea “Ammonia project,” which aims to study the environmental impact of using ammonia as an alternative fuel in maritime and aerial transportation.
The objective of this collaborative IMFAHE network is to promote professional development, educational and research excellence in the university community, as well as to facilitate real-time global knowledge transfer and the creation of effective multidisciplinary collaborations, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation. In addition to free access to three online courses organized to promote professional development, innovation-entrepreneurship-leadership, and scientific careers, there is the “IMFAHE Talent Platform,” which focuses on online communication, networking, and entrepreneurship through the “IMFAHE’s idea contest-Nodal Award-Shark Tank” or the idea accelerator “Venture Building Program.”
Now, in May 2023, and within the scope of the award won, Alexandra Monteiro and Vera Rodrigues organized the “Ammonia workshop” at the University of Waterloo (Canada), which had more than 50 participants. In addition to jointly organizing this international workshop with colleagues from the University of Waterloo, the group of researchers is preparing to submit a scientific paper to the “Journal of Cleaner Production” and preparing a research project proposal.
Text by: Alexandra Monteiro and Vera Rodrigues in collaboration with CESAM
On June 5th, we celebrate World Environment Day. The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is responsible for the annual celebration of World Environment Day.
Its creation in 1973 came a year after the first world conference on the environment, the ‘United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.’ Bringing together 122 countries, it was the first time that the environment became a truly global issue.
Over the years, the celebration of this date has brought together organizations from civil society, academia, industry, and political power, becoming one of the largest global platforms for environmental awareness. In 2023, the focus of this day’s celebration is on the theme of plastic pollution, under the motto “Combat Plastic Pollution,” with the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and the Netherlands as the host countries.
The Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) invites you to celebrate World Environment Day with us at the Renato Araújo Auditorium of the University of Aveiro’s Rectorate Building.
Exhibition “Bichos de lá, bichos de cá”
Between 10:30 and 11:00, come to the atrium of the University of Aveiro’s Rectorate Building, have a coffee, and visit the photographic exhibition “Bichos de lá, bichos de cá”.
At 11:00 am, we will officially inaugurate the exhibition in the Renato Araújo Auditorium (next to the atrium), with speeches by Paulo Jorge Ferreira, Rector of the University of Aveiro, José Luis Cordeiro, Researcher, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Brazil), and Amadeu Soares, Scientific Coordinator of CESAM.
The exhibition “Local Critters, Foreign Critters” is the result of a partnership between CESAM-UA (Portugal), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz, Brazil), and Osuwela Association (Mozambique), and will be open to all interested parties until June 30, 2023, in the atrium of the University of Aveiro’s Rectorate Building.
Synopsis
“Across every corner of planet Earth, nature is full of stories of drama and resilience. By analyzing the various ecosystems that cover land and water surfaces, we can observe differences, but also many similarities in how they function and tell their stories. In the stage that is this planet, there are millions of actors, many of whom we do not know. But we can identify certain roles that, being common to all ecosystems, help us decipher the secrets hidden in the Biodiversity scenery.
The exhibition ‘Bichos de lá, bichos de cá’ consists of a presentation of 7 modules with 41 panels, addressing concepts, behaviors, and conservation aspects with examples of fauna species from Portugal, Brazil, and Mozambique. This way, visitors can see how nature unites these three countries and speaks a single language in how different species perform similar functions, wherever we are.”
Partnerships for a Sustainable Future
During the week of May 29 to June 2, 2023, under the auspices of UNEP, the final negotiation of an international binding agreement to combat plastic pollution will take place in Paris. This negotiation is the result of over a year’s work by the International Negotiation Committee (INC), established in February 2022.
As UNEP states, “the rapid growth of plastic pollution levels poses a serious global threat, negatively impacting the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable development. If the current course continues, the amount of plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could nearly triple: from between 9 to 14 million tons per year in 2016, to between 27 to 37 million tons per year in 2040.”
In this context, our commemorative session, under the theme “Partnerships for a Sustainable Future,” also includes a lecture directly related to the issue of plastic pollution, and presents a group of guests who will speak about strategic partnerships, current and future opportunities, and mechanisms to establish and/or reinforce them (e.g. EU missions).
Solutions for Plastic Pollution
Teresa Rocha Santos, Researcher CESAM/DQ, Univ. of Aveiro
Partnerships for a Sustainable Future
Jorge Ferrão, Rector of the Pedagogical University of Maputo, Mozambique
Márcia Chame, Researcher, Biodiversity and Wildlife Health Institutional Platform, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil
Maria de Jesus Fernandes, President of the Order of Biologists
Mariana Alves, Co-director of the program “Letters with Science” and CIDTFF researcher, Univ. of Aveiro
Teresa Pinto Correia, EU “Soil Missions,” Professor, MED-CHANGE, Univ. of Évora
Helena Vieira, EU “Ocean and Waters Missions,” CESAM/DAO researcher, Univ. of Aveiro
To learn more about the global platform associated with this day (where we are registered), you can access it here.
On March 30th, the public presentation of the “Strategic and Action Plan for Wild Boar in Portugal” took place at the headquarters of the Alentejo Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-Alentejo). The plan was promoted by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) and funded by the Permanent Forest Fund.
The presentation of this plan was given by the project’s Responsible Researcher, Rita Tinoco Torres (CESAM/DBIO), in a session attended by researcher João Carvalho (CESAM/DBIO), ICNF Executive Board President Nuno Banza, Secretary of State for Agriculture Gonçalo Rodrigues, and Secretary of State for Nature Conservation and Forests João Paulo Catarino.
This Plan, along with the data presented in it, as well as the evidence of the growing impact of wild boar on human activities, lead the researcher to state that: “the continental national territory has a generally overabundant population of wild boar, and this overabundance may be particularly relevant in certain landscape and socioeconomic contexts.”
As a way to reverse the trend of growing wild boar populations and aiming to reconcile their presence with the surrounding ecological, sanitary, and socioeconomic context, a combination of different approaches is suggested. These range from limiting the temporal period of feeding to increasing the annual extraction rate, extracting specific age classes and sexes, and applying greater effort during the first quarter of the hunting season (hunting drives).
The development of the Strategic and Action Plan for Wild Boar in Portugal was based on collaboration among various groups, from academia and government agencies to hunting sectors and local communities. According to Rita Tinoco Torres, “this collaboration should be the necessary paradigm to address the emerging challenges involving this species.”
Text by: Rita Tinoco Torres (CESAM/DBIO) in collaboration with CESAM
Heliana Teixeira (CESAM/DBIO) is one of the proponents of a COST Action, which has been approved with the highest rating in all its components. The action is titled “Insect AI – Using Image-based AI for Insect Monitoring & Conservation.” The aim of this COST Action is to strengthen capacities and collaborative networks for the development of image-based AI technologies and computer vision tools, advancing research in the field of nature monitoring and conservation, particularly focusing on insects.
Worldwide insect populations are facing a significant decline, and this COST Action aims to address one of the critical challenges identified in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, which is the standardized collection of information about the state of nature.
The researcher’s participation in this COST Action stems from her collaboration with the proposal coordinator, Tom August, from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, United Kingdom. This collaboration began in the recently concluded COST Action AlienCSI, which focused on using citizen science to enhance knowledge about exotic species, particularly invasive ones.
For more information about COST actions, visit here.
More information about the image: Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Computer Vision applied to nature conservation: the process of training an image object detection model (fictitious example).
World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5th. The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the organization responsible for the annual celebration of World Environment Day. Over the years, the observance of this day has brought together organizations from civil society, academia, industry, and political power, becoming one of the largest global platforms for environmental awareness.
In 2023, the focus of this day is on the theme of plastic pollution, under the slogan “Combat Plastic Pollution.” The United Nations Environment Programme, on its website, states that “the rapid growth in plastic pollution levels poses a serious global threat, negatively impacting the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable development. If the current trend continues, the amount of plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could almost triple by 2040.”
As part of the celebration of this day, we spoke with Teresa Rocha Santos (CESAM/DQUA), whose work is related to the theme of plastic pollution.
CESAM Communication: “If you had to highlight just one, what would be the risk of plastic pollution that you would emphasize?”
Teresa Rocha Santos: The main issue with plastic pollution is its potential effects on ecosystems and human health. When we think about plastics (larger than 5 mm), these effects are obvious, and efforts have been made to minimize them as much as possible. Regarding plastics smaller than 5 mm, including microplastics and nanoplastics, the problem is more complex. Tests with very high concentrations have been carried out to predict their effects. However, these very high concentrations are usually not environmentally relevant, meaning they are much higher than the actual concentrations of microplastics and nanoplastics in the environment. This makes it difficult to understand their effects at the concentrations where they actually exist in the environment.
CESAM Communication: “What are the main issues [related to plastics] that your current research aims to address?”
Teresa Rocha Santos: To understand the effects of microplastics and nanoplastics, we need to know their concentrations in the environment. This requires the development of methodologies capable of quantifying and identifying micro and nanoplastics.
Microplastics can carry contaminants, and therefore we study the absorption of chemical compounds such as metals and PAHs in microplastics. We also use fungi like Z. maritimum to remove microplastics, which can be applied as tertiary treatment in treatment plants or in new treatment stations.
CESAM Communication: What kind of action or behavior would you recommend to an ordinary citizen to help in this ‘fight’ against plastic pollution?
Teresa Rocha Santos: The principles of the 3 Rs – reduce, recycle, and reuse – remain extremely important to prevent more plastics from entering the environment. It’s also important to avoid single-use plastics, dispose of plastics properly in recycling or waste bins, and when possible, choose biobased plastics that are biodegradable.
World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5th. The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the organization responsible for the annual celebration of World Environment Day. Over the years, the observance of this day has brought together organizations from civil society, academia, industry, and political power, becoming one of the largest global platforms for environmental awareness.
In 2023, the focus of this day is on the theme of plastic pollution, under the slogan “Combat Plastic Pollution.” The United Nations Environment Programme, on its website, states that “the rapid growth in plastic pollution levels poses a serious global threat, negatively impacting the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable development. If the current trend continues, the amount of plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could almost triple by 2040.”
As part of the celebration of this day, we spoke with Miguel Oliveira (CESAM/DBIO), whose work is related to the theme of plastic pollution.
CESAM Communication: “If you had to highlight just one, what would be the risk of plastic pollution that you would emphasize?”
Miguel Oliveira: I would say that the main risk lies in the long-term effects and the issue of additives. Plastics have different constituents, but it’s these chemical substances, the additives, that allow them to have their characteristic color, plasticity, or thermal resistance, for example.
What often happens is that, with the aging of plastics under certain conditions, these chemical products start to be released. It’s known that these chemicals are hazardous to aquatic organisms and humans. A well-known example is bisphenol A, which has been removed from products for children. In the environment, one of the main risks is the ability of particles to adsorb contaminants. Microplastics can adsorb contaminants on their surface or inside them, such as pharmaceuticals, and when ingested by organisms, they can release these active substances, resembling a “Trojan horse” effect.
But it’s important to clarify that presence doesn’t necessarily indicate effect. We need to take precautions, for sure, and we have already detected some effects of plastics on organisms in our studies – such as immune system alterations and changes in reproduction – but only at very high concentrations. More studies are needed, and it’s crucial to understand the long-term effects of the presence and ingestion of these plastics by organisms.
CESAM Communication: “What are the main issues [related to plastics] that your current research aims to address?”
Miguel Oliveira: We have different lines of research in our laboratory, but in one of these lines, we are testing alternative polymers – biopolymers. The idea is that biopolymers are safer (…) replacing petroleum-derived polymers like polyethylene with others of natural origin that are synthesized from algae or bacteria. We’re testing possible new polymers in collaboration with other research groups, aiming for polymers that pose less danger to aquatic organisms and humans and degrade more easily. This is with the goal of making changes to reduce the release of these substances into the environment.
Besides research, another area we focus on is science communication. We’re also conducting studies in collaboration with experts in social psychology to analyze public perceptions of plastics – whether they consider them harmless, if they see differences between types of plastics, and so on. This will help us develop tools for more effective communication with the public.
CESAM Communication: What kind of action or behavior would you recommend to an ordinary citizen to help in this ‘fight’ against plastic pollution?
Miguel Oliveira: I would suggest conscious use of plastics and plastic reuse. Because if we all consider the fate and end of life of plastics, that will help a lot. We can’t ignore that plastics are very useful and can be beneficial. For example, in biomedicine, plastic materials are much cheaper, effective, and easily sterilizable.
The point is to limit the use of single-use plastics. How can consumers do that? For instance, choose products that require less plastic – use cloth bags instead of plastic, buy cosmetics without these types of polymers, or buy products in bulk. These are small actions but can help limit the presence of these substances in the environment.
