The mesophotic zone represents one of our planet's largest and least explored biomes. An increasing number of studies evidence the importance of macrofouling species in marine ecosystems, but information on these communities and the factors influencing their structures at mesophotic depths remain poor. This lack of understanding limits our ability to predict anthropogenic impacts or conduct restoration operatio...
Spatial patterns and temporal trends of the butyltin compounds tributyltin (TBT), dibutyltin (DBT), and mon-obutyltin (MBT) were investigated in a set of sediment samples collected along the SW Portuguese continental shelf. This region did not reach the Good Environmental Status (GES) in accordance with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) during a first evaluation carried out in 2012. Overall, MBT an...
Aims: Rising sea-level following the Last Glacial Maximum lead to fragmentation of coastal limpet populations between islands of the Archipelago of Madeira. This fragmentation is reinforced by recent heavy exploitation reducing effective population size on Madeira Island. We use the limpet P. aspera to understand how the role of processes at different time scales (i.e. changes in the sea level and overexploitat...
Studies on microbial communities are pivotal to understand the role and the evolutionary paths of the host and their associated microorganisms in the ecosystems. Meta-genomics techniques have proven to be one of the most efective tools in the identifcation of endosymbiotic communities of host species. The microbiome of the highly exploited topshell Phorcus sauciatus was characterized in the Northeastern Atlanti...
Current trends in the global climate facilitate the displacement of numerous marine species from their native distribution ranges to higher latitudes when facing warming conditions. In this work, we analyzed occurrences of a circumtropical reef fish, the spotfin burrfish, Chilomycterus reticulatus (Linnaeus, 1958), in the Madeira Archipelago (NE Atlantic) between 1898 and 2021. In addition to available data sou...
In late 2019, an outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus started in China (Graham and Baric, 2020; Hu et al., 2020; Maxmen, 2021). A global pandemic was declared in March 2020, as COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus (World Health Organization, 2020b), escalated outside China (World Health Organization, 2020a). In mid-2021, when vaccination campaigns began to show positive effects on the control of th...
Harvesting of intertidal grazers such as topshells is known to affect negatively the exploited populations by altering population structure and decreasing abundance. Phorcus sauciatus has a wide geographic distribution in the North‐eastern Atlantic Ocean and is subject to increasing levels of harvesting pressure due to the expansion of human population on coastal areas. The effect of proximity to human settleme...
A elaboração do presente relatório surge no âmbito da Unidade Curricular: Ensino Clínico (EC) – Integração à Vida Profissional em Cuidados de Saúde Primários (CSP), inserido no plano curricular do 4.º Ano/2.º Semestre, do Curso de Enfermagem, da Escola Superior de Saúde (ESS), do Instituto Politécnico da Guarda (IPG), sob orientação da professora Hermínia Barbosa. Este EC foi realizado na Unidade de Cuidados na...
The deep-sea sharks associated as by-catch of the Madeiran midwater drifting longline fishery for scabbardfishes (Aphanopus spp.) were investigated by means of an experimental survey at 800-1200 m depth within the Canary Islands Exclusive Economic Zone, whose fishing grounds have been exploited during the past 15 years. Nine species of chondrich thyans were identified, belonging to five families: Pseudotriakida...
Topshells play a pivotal role in intertidal rocky ecosystems and are adapted to harsh thermal and hydric stress. Phorcus sauciatus, a common grazer in the Macaronesian region (Madeira and the Canaries), has rarely been studied due to its restricted geographic distribution com pared with Phorcus lineatus. Monthly samples were taken throughout 2017 to analyse biological parameters and evaluate the harvesting effe...