On December 11th, 2020, 1:00-2:30 PM UTC, we will have our penultimate session of the year and we will take this opportunity to welcome and congratulate Cabo Verde for its formal association to the AIR Centre’s General Assembly and Board of Directors. For this special occasion, we invited two keynote speakers, Aline Rendall (INIDA) and Rui Freitas (UTA), to talk about the biodiversity of Cabo Verde. The session will be moderated by Teresa Amaro, University of Aveiro.

This is the program for this session:

1:00 PM UTC | Opening  and welcome remarks, Miguel Belló Mora, CEO, AIR Centre

1:03 PM UTC | Brief comments, Raffaella Gozzelino, Dean, Atlantic Technical University of Cape Verde (UTA)

1:06 PM UTC | Brief comments, Malik Lopes, President, Sea Institute  (IMar), Cape Verde

1:09 PM UTC | Brief comments, Maurício Guedes, Member of Board of Directors, AIR Centre and Director of Technology at the Research Foundation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Brazil.

1:12 PM UTC | Introduction of the speakers/presentations, Teresa Amaro, University of Aveiro, Portugal

1:15 PM UTC | Terrestrial biodiversity in Cabo Verde: state of art, distribution and conservation, Aline Rendall, National Institute for Agricultural Research and Development (INIDA), Cabo Verde

1:40 PM UTC | Peculiarities of the marine biodiversity in Cabo Verde, Rui Freitas, UTA, Cabo Verde

2:05 PM UTC | Questions & Answers, moderated by Teresa Amaro, University of Aveiro, Portugal

2:25 PM UTC | Closing, Raffaella Gozzelino, Dean, Atlantic Technical University of Cape Verde (UTA)

Speakers

Aline Rendall

Terrestrial biodiversity in Cabo Verde: state of art, distribution and conservation

Aline Rendall will give a general overview of the terrestrial biodiversity in Cape Verde, including some historical notes,  distribution in relation to bioclimatic regions and islands, conservation issues and current status and challenges.

Aline has a degree in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Pernambuco and a master in Animal Biology from the University of Brasília (UNB). Between 2011 and 2014, she was the President of INIDA / São Jorge dos Órgãos, where she currently works as a graduate research assistant on the area of Terrestrial Biodiversity Conservation, with focus on the terrestrial fauna (birds and insects, Cape Verde Biodiversity Database) and emphasis on endemic and threatened species. She is also a part-time professor since 2009 at the University of Cape Verde, having taught Genetics, Anatomy and Animal Physiology, Biology of vertebrates, Field Techniques for Biodiversity studies for the courses of Biological Sciences and Socio-Environmental Agronomy. Aline advised more than two dozen end-of-course work in the domains of Biodiversity, particularly ornithology, entomology, among others. She also participated on the elaboration of several national documents in the field of Biodiversity and conservation, including Fauna and Flora Inventories in the islands and the development of Cape Verde’s Biodiversity Management and Conservation Plans.

Rui Freitas

Peculiarities of the marine biodiversity in Cabo Verde

Rui Freitas graduated in Marine Biology and Fisheries at the University of Algarve (Portugal) in 2005 and obtained an M.Sc in Marine Resources and Coastal Management from the University of Cabo Verde in 2008. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the DO*MAR program of the Campus do Mar, University of Vigo in Spain and a full-time Professor at the Technical University of Atlantic, Institute of Engineering and Sea Science and the Chair of the Zoological Society of Cabo Verde (SCVZ). The society publishes the open access journal Zoologia Caboverdiana, which is the first and only peer-reviewed publication of Cabo Verde. R. Freitas’ Ph.D. research project focuses on gathering the baseline community structure, ecology, biodiversity and biogeography of the reef fish from Cabo Verde Islands. The thesis is titled “Littoral Ichthyofauna of Cabo Verde islands: Biogeographic analysis and Community structure”. In collaboration with the Cabo Verde Ocean Observatory, CVOO in Mindelo and Sea Institute, IMar, he also undertakes initiatives research on fisheries and telemetric oceanography. His knowledge covers a wide spectrum of disciplines in marine sciences including marine biodiversity, ichthyology, coastal ecology and management, MPA studies – using GIS approaches as research focus. He has an aim of establishing a natural history and palaeontology museum of Cabo Verde archipelago. His publications and metrics can be accessed here.

Moderator

Teresa Amaro

Teresa Amaro is a research assistant at the University of Aveiro at the biology department. She has been a deep-sea ecologist for the last 12 years where she have learnt to adopt a holistic view in Marine Sciences and to use a multidisciplinary approach to solve scientific problems. Teresa has conducted extensive research to understand trophic ecology in different deep-sea ecosystems in contrasting ocean basins (Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean Sea) having a strong background in different areas of ecology. She has a huge interest on deepen my understanding of how biological processes of the oceans contribute to global climate change. Specifically, Teresa would like to conduct studies in global biochemical cycles, to be able to conduct future research on the consequences of deep-sea biota, if projected shifts in primary producers happen in the future, due to global climate change.

Currently, Teresa is involved in collaborative projects where she specifically aim to understand the effects of suspended and resettled sediment plumes on organic matter remineralization by benthic communities, including microorganisms, meio-, macro- and megafauna (in situ experiments, moored instrumentation, sediment cores, and seafloor imagery). In addition, Teresa is very interested in deepening my knowledge on contributing to efficient management recommendations for mitigating the effects of global ecological changes, in line with the needs of stakeholders and local public.

Teresa has also proven experience in >50 international and interdisciplinary oceanographic cruises, where she uses many different techniques such as, ROVs, man-submersibles, landers, sediment traps, corers, trawlers and especially in situ experiments.

This will be our next to last session of the year of 2020. More information about future sessions as well as presentations and videos from previous sessions can be found here. Twitter Hashtag: #netfridays. Expect some very exciting afternoons, or mornings or evenings, depending on where you are…

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.