Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies

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Publications

Warming in shallow waters: Seasonal response of stress biomarkers in a tide pool fish

Publication . Vinagre, Catarina; Madeira, Diana; Mendonça, Vanessa; Madeira, Carolina; Diniz, Mário S.

Tide pools are rapidly warming environments with low thermal inertia, where organisms are exposed to potentially stressful conditions. This way, tide pools will be among the first and hardest hit environments by climate warming. Studies of thermal stress in situ are rare, but important so that current thermal stress in the wild can be confirmed and serve as reference for the future. This study aims to investigate the seasonal response of stress biomarkers in a common tide pool fish, the blenny Lipophrys trigloides, under natural conditions, in situ. Multiple biomarkers of thermal and oxidative stress were analysed in the tissues of the muscle, visceral mass, gills and brain of L. trigloides, under spring (18.50 +/- 0.71 degrees C) and summer conditions (28.30 +/- 1.30 degrees C), in order to assess tissue-specific seasonal responses to the rapid warming that occurs seasonally in tide pools. It was concluded that L. trigloides seems to be setting in motion relevant thermal stress and antioxidant defences under summer conditions. All tissues analysed were responsive and all biomarkers of thermal and oxidative stress increased in summer conditions, with the exception of SOD, which presented no alterations. The present study offers reference values that will be useful for future comparison during particularly warm summers and in future years as climate warming progresses.

2021Journal article

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Bioproducts from forest biomass: Essential oils and hydrolates from wastes of Cupressus lusitanica Mill. and Cistus ladanifer L.

Publication . Tavares, Claudia S.; Martins, Alice; Faleiro, L; Miguel, Maria; Duarte, Luis C.; Gameiro, Jose A.; Roseiro, Luisa B.; Cristina Figueiredo, A.

Unattended forest wastes are, among others, a potential source of wildfires, as well as a growth media for forest pests. As a way of lowering the detrimental effect of these wastes, it is important to convert these under-valued resources into a value-generating market forest wastes use. Essential oils (EOs) and hydrolates (Hs) from Cupressus lusitanica and Cistus ladanifer waste products, resulting from forest landscaping in Portugal, were evaluated for chemical composition and biological activity. Essential oils and Hs were obtained by steam-distillation (SD) and hydrodistillation (HD). Essential oils and Hs volatiles were analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC MS). The antimicrobial activity of EOs was studied by disk agar diffusion method against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Antioxidant activity of EOs and Hs was evaluated by 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) free radical, superoxide anion radical formation, xanthine oxidase and chelating metal ions assays. Antiinflammatory activity of Hs was assessed by albumin denaturation assay. Monoterpene hydrocarbons and oxygen-containing monoterpenes dominated C. lusitanica EO (SD, 82-86 %, HD, 80-85 %) and Hs volatiles (SD, 93-94 %; HD 64-81 %), respectively. alpha-Pinene (14-36 %), limonene (8-21 %), delta-3-carene (8-19 %) and sabinene (6-18 %) were the main EO constituents. Hydrolates volatiles were dominated by cis-3-hexen-1-ol (0.1-13 %), camphor (1-11 %), umbellulone (t-48 %), p-cymene-8-ol (11-16 %) and terpinen-4-ol (21-31 %). C. ladanifer EOs were dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons (SD, 48-80 % and HD, 29 %) and Hs by oxygen containing monoterpenes (SD, 38-43 %, HD, 39 %). The EO major constituents were alpha-pinene (13-28 %) and camphene (5-25 %), whereas 2,6,6-trimethyl cyclohexanone (2-12 %) and trans-pinocarveol (5-13 %) dominated the Hs volatiles. This study reports for the first time the chemical composition of the hydrolate volatiles of these two species and their anti-inflammatory properties. Among the studied biological activities, the EOs showed the best antioxidant properties while Hs demonstrated higher anti-inflammatory activity.

2020-02Journal article

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Trends and drivers of marine fish landings in Portugal since its entrance in the European Union

Publication . Bueno-Pardo, Juan; Pierce, Graham J.; Cabecinha, Edna; Grilo, Catarina; Assis, Jorge; Valavanis, Vasilis; Pita, Cristina; Dubert, Jesus; Leitão, Francisco; Queiroga, Henrique

Marine landings in Portugal have decreased at a higher rate than fishing effort in the last 20 years. Identifying the variables driving the quantity and composition of landings is pivotal to understand the dynamics of the fisheries sector, which entails complex social and environmental aspects. In this study, we investigate the main drivers of marine fish landings in continental Portugal between 1989 and 2014. To identify common trends in time series, and quantify the importance of environmental factors, we applied a dynamic factor analysis considering four regions and three types of gear (trawling, purse-seine, and a multi-gear fishery). Our results show the importance of fishing effort as the most relevant factor driving marine landings in Portugal, both at the long and short terms. In addition, the effect of environmental factors such as the winter river discharge and the spring East Atlantic Teleconnection index should not be neglected, probably through mechanisms affecting coastal productivity. We provide a comprehensive amount of information that permits to improve our understanding of the trends of the most important commercial species in Portugal during the period of study.

2020-05Journal article

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Deriving high spatial-resolution coastal topography from sub-meter satellite stereo imagery

Publication . Almeida, Luís Pedro; Almar, Rafael; Bergsma, Erwin; Berthier, Etienne; Baptista, Paulo; Garel, Erwan; Dada, Olusegun; Alves, Bruna

High spatial resolution coastal Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are crucial to assess coastal vulnerability and hazards such as beach erosion, sedimentation, or inundation due to storm surges and sea level rise. This paper explores the possibility to use high spatial-resolution Pleiades (pixel size = 0.7 m) stereoscopic satellite imagery to retrieve a DEM on sandy coastline. A 40-km coastal stretch in the Southwest of France was selected as a pilot-site to compare topographic measurements obtained from Pleiades satellite imagery, Real Time Kinematic GPS (RTK-GPS) and airborne Light Detection and Ranging System (LiDAR). The derived 2-m Pleiades DEM shows an overall good agreement with concurrent methods (RTK-GPS and LiDAR; correlation coefficient of 0.9), with a vertical Root Mean Squared Error (RMS error) that ranges from 0.35 to 0.48 m, after absolute coregistration to the LiDAR dataset. The largest errors (RMS error > 0.5 m) occurred in the steep dune faces, particularly at shadowed areas. This work shows that DEMs derived from sub-meter satellite imagery capture local morphological features (e.g., berm or dune shape) on a sandy beach, over a large spatial domain.

2019Journal article

Open Access