On November 27th, 2020, 1-3 PM UTC, we visited the coast of the Brazilian Amazonia to learn more about its mangroves, costal dynamics and coral reefs with Pedro Walfir, researcher at the Vale Institute of Technology (ITV) and professor at the Federal University of Para, Brazil (UFPA); Marcello Rollnic, coordinator of the Marine Environmental Monitoring Laboratory (LAPMAR) at UFPA; and Nils Asp, researcher at the Institute of Coastal Studies (IECOS) at UFPA. The moderator was Sury Monteiro, UFPA.

Agenda:

1:00 -1:05 PM UTC | Welcome remarks and introductions

1:05 -1:30 PM UTC | Pedro Walfir – Mangroves in Amazonia

1:30 -2:00 PM UTC | Marcelo Rollnic – Costal dynamics

2:00 -2:30 PM UTC | Nils Asp – A Mesophotic Reef System off the Amazon River mouth

2:30 -2:55 PM UTC | Q&A

2:55 – 3:00 PM UTC | Closing remarks and presentation of the International Conference on Linking Green and Blue Amazonias: Fostering community innovation in coastal and estuarine areas, to be held on December 14-15, 2020.

Speakers

Pedro Walfir

Pedro Walfir graduated in geology from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), with specialization in marine geology and geophysics from the Federal Fluminense University. He holds a master’s and doctorate from UFPA in the area of marine geology and remote geological sensing, respectively. He is a full professor at the Geosciences Institute at UFPA. He is currently also coordinator of the CNPq Oceanography Committee.

Marcelo Rollnic

Marcelo Rollnic is a professor at the Federal University of Pará, where he coordinates the research group on Marine Environmental Monitoring. He has experience in data acquisition, oceanographic database and numerical modelling in the Amazon Coastal Zone as well as interactions with socioeconomic activities.

Nils Asp

A Mesophotic Reef System off the Amazon River mouth

A huge mesophotic reef system (GARS) has been described recently, just off the Amazon River mouth. Due to the strong influence of the Amazon River plume, it has peculiar characteristics and a strong relevance including biodiversity, fisheries and Climate regulation. This presentation summarizes results of recent research efforts and the complexity of the Amazon River mouth area, where the biggest fluvial discharge of the world interacts with macrotidal regime, resulting at the end in large reef and mangrove areas.

Nils Asp is an Oceanographer, with more than 20 years of experience, within 15 years at UFPA-Brazilian Amazon, especially focused on coastal and marine geology. His main research interest is coastal evolution in a broad perspective in wave- to tide-dominated, tropical environments, investigating short-term dynamics to long-term evolution through hydrodynamics, geomorphology and stratigraphy. His recent projects are focused at the complex and interconnected area of the low Amazon River, the adjacent tide-dominated coast and the contiguous continental shelf, including mesophotic reefs off the Amazon River mouth. He has published more than 40 scientific papers about those topics.

Recent five highlighted publications

• Nittrouer, Charles A.; Demaster, David J.; Kuehl, Steven A.; Figueiredo, Alberto G.; Sternberg, Richard W.; Faria, L. Ercilio C.; Silveira, Odete M.; Allison, Mead A.; Kineke, Gail C.; Ogston, Andrea S.; Souza Filho, Pedro W.M.; Asp, Nils E.; Nowacki, Daniel J.; Fricke, Aaron T. Amazon Sediment Transport and Accumulation Along the Continuum of Mixed Fluvial and Marine Processes. Annual Review of Marine Science, v. 13, p. 6.1-6.36, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060457.
• De Mahiques, Michel Michaelovitch; Siegle, Eduardo; Francini-Filho, Ronaldo Bastos; Thompson, Fabiano Lopes; De Rezende, Carlos Eduardo; Gomes, José Diego; Asp, Nils E. Insights on the evolution of the living Great Amazon Reef System, equatorial West Atlantic. Scientific Reports, v. 9, p. 13699, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50245-6.
• Francini-Filho, Ronaldo B.; Asp, Nils E.; Siegle, Eduardo; Hocevar, John; Lowyck, Kenneth; D’avila, Nilo ; Vasconcelos, Agnaldo A.; Baitelo, Ricardo; Rezende, Carlos E.  Omachi, Claudia Y.  Thompson, Cristiane C.; Thompson, Fabiano L. Perspectives on the Great Amazon Reef: Extension, Biodiversity, and Threats. FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE, v. 5, p. 142, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00142.
• Asp, Nils E.; Gomes, V.J.C.; Schettini, C.A.F.; Souza-Filho, P.W.M.; Siegle, E.; Ogston, A.S.; Nittrouer, C.A.; Silva, J.N.S.; Nascimento, W.R.; Souza, S.R.; Pereira, L.C.C.; Queiroz, M.C. Sediment dynamics of a tropical tide-dominated estuary: Turbidity maximum, mangroves and the role of the Amazon River sediment load. ESTUARINE COASTAL AND SHELF SCIENCE, v. 214, p. 10-24, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2018.09.004.
• Moura, R. L. Amado-Filho, G. M. Moraes, F. C. Brasileiro, P. S. Salomon, P. S. Mahiques, M. M. Bastos, A. C. Almeida, M. G. Silva, J. M. Araujo, B. F. Brito, F. P. Rangel, T. P. Oliveira, B. C. V. Bahia, R. G. Paranhos, R. P. Dias, R. J. S. Siegle, E. Figueiredo, A. G. Pereira, R. C. Leal, C. V. Hajdu, E. Asp, Nils E.; Gregoracci, G. B. Neumann-Leitao, S. Yager, P. L., Et Al.; An extensive reef system at the Amazon River mouth. Science Advances, v. 2, p. e1501252-e1501252, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501252.

Moderator

Sury Monteiro

Sury Monteiro is an oceanographer, Director of the Faculty of Oceanography at UFPA, collaborator of the Graduate Program in Oceanography – PPGOC / UFPA, and Member of the Research Group on Marine Environmental Monitoring (LAPMAR). She works in several socio-environmental initiatives to expand human relations with rivers and oceans through citizen science. Sury develops research related to water quality, floating solid waste in coastal environments, environmental education and ecosystem services.

We will continue with the Networking Fridays during the next months. 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.