José Alves, a researcher at CESAM/DBio, participated in the 12th edition of OBSERVANATURA, held on October 28 and 29 at Herdade da Mourisca in Setúbal. This event, a fair dedicated to nature tourism, is organized in collaboration with the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), TróiaNatura, and the municipalities of Setúbal, Santiago do Cacém, and Sines. Its main mission is to promote birdwatching tourism and showcase the natural heritage of the Arrábida Natural Park and the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve.
As part of this event, José Alves gave a lecture titled ‘Why Travel to the Arctic? Connectivity and Performance of Migratory Shorebirds,’ where he presented recent discoveries about the ecology of migratory shorebirds. The lecture covered both the behavior of these birds during winter in the temperate estuaries of Portugal and their reproduction in the Arctic.
Additionally, José Alves presented the RTP documentary titled ‘Long-Distance Migrants: Between the Tagus and the Arctic.’ This documentary highlighted the Tagus Estuary as an essential refuge for thousands of birds during winter, with a special focus on the migration of red knots between the Tagus Estuary and the subarctic region of Iceland, as well as the work of the researcher and his team in this area.