Angelo F Bernardino

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Federal University of Espírito Santo

Climate change will lead to community shifts and increase the vulnerability of coastal marine ecosystems, but there is yet insufficient detail of how early life stages of marine populations are linked to oceanic-climate dynamics. This study aimed to investigate how ocean-climate variability is associated with spatial and temporal changes in benthic...

Mine tailing disasters have occurred worldwide and contemporary release of tailings of large proportions raise concerns of the chronic impacts that trace metals may have on the aquatic biodiversity. Environmental metabarcoding (eDNA) offers an as yet poorly explored opportunity for biological monitoring of impacted aquatic ecosystems from mine tail...

Climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events with potential effects in coastal and estuarine ecosystems. During drought periods, higher salinity and temperature can directly impact estuarine benthic assemblages through physiological stress and alteration of sedimentary habitats, but these effects are poorly eva...

Mangroves sequester large quantities of carbon (C) that become significant sources of greenhouse gases when disturbed through land‐use change. Thus, they are of great value to incorporate into climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. In response, a global network of mangrove plots was established to provide policy‐relevant ecological da...

The potential of Blue Carbon as an integral part of global climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies requires quantification of drivers and rates of organic carbon (OC) burial and storage. However, there is limited recognition of how land use impacts benthic assemblages, their bioturbation potential, and OC burial in mangrove forests and...

Rhodolith beds are unique marine ecosystems composed primarily by calcified algae that provide essential habitat for diverse marine organisms and contribute to sediment stabilization, nutrient cycling, and carbonate production in the ocean. The Brazilian coast hosts extensive rhodolith beds that are threatened by multiple anthropogenic activities,...

Macroalgae beds are extensive and productive marine benthic vegetated habitats globally, occurring in nearly 28% of coastal habitats worldwide. These marine forests may be important coastal carbon sinks but there are very limited in-situ assessments of their carbon stocks. In this study, we assessed the blue carbon stocks (aboveground and belowgrou...

Abyssal ecosystems comprise more than 50% of the Earth's area and constitute an important reservoir in the global carbon cycle. With ocean productivity expected to decrease due to global warming, these ecosystems could face significant impacts in the coming decades. Benthic macrofauna are a key component of the seafloor carbon and nitrogen cycles,...

Aim Brazil harbours the largest known extent of rhodolith beds (RBs) in the world, a habitat whose ecological and economic importance have been widely overlooked. This creates a dire situation that is likely to worsen with the rapidly expanding human activities, considering that less than 5% of Brazil's ocean area is fully protected. We assessed th...

Rhodolith beds (RBs) are known to increase the seabed complexity and act as a hotspot, supporting a unique biodiversity. This increased structural complexity due to the presence of rhodolith nodules is expected to influence benthic diversity at a local scale. To investigate this further, we tested the hypothesis that high-density rhodolith beds hol...

This study analyzed the role of soil health (SH) and ecosystem services (ESs) in global mangrove research articles from 1958 to 2024. The SH approach is vital for evaluating mangroves’ ability to provide ES. However, most studies made no reference to these topics, an important gap that must be addressed. We performed a systematic literature review...

Tropical peat swamp forests provide many important ecosystem services, especially their function as global carbon sinks. These carbon‐rich wetlands are widespread in South America, yet few studies have examined carbon stocks or losses due to land use change. In the lower Amazon, they are being converted to pastures largely utilized by domestic wate...

Mangroves are coastal hotspots for carbon storage and yet face multiple threats from anthropogenic activities. Here we explore the role of iron-mediated organomineral interactions (FeOMIs) in soil organic carbon (SOC) stabilization and their sensitivity to land use change (LUC) in Amazonian mangroves. We show that Fe oxides protect more labile SOC...

Coastal mangrove ecosystems have been shown to be important microplastic (MP) sinks. Yet, information regarding their MP sequestration capacity is scant. Here, we characterized the spatial and vertical distribution of MPs in mangrove ecosystems of the Amazon River delta and quantified, for the first time, their MP burial and potential economic valu...

Ecosystem functioning, i.e. the transfer of material through a system, supports the ecosystem services deep-sea sediments provide, including carbon sequestration, nutrient regeneration, and climate regulation. To date, seven studies globally have researched in situ how various benthic groups contribute to organic matter degradation in abyssal sedim...

Background Sandy beaches are dynamic environments housing a large diversity of organisms and providing important environmental services. Meiofaunal metazoan are small organisms that play a key role in the sediment. Their diversity, distribution and composition are driven by sedimentary and oceanographic parameters. Understanding the diversity patte...

Wetland plants play a crucial role in regulating soil geochemistry, influencing heavy metal (HM) speciation, bioavailability, and uptake, thus impacting phytoremediation potential. We hypothesized that variations in HM biogeochemistry within estuarine soils are controlled by distinct estuarine plant species. We evaluated the soils (pH, redox potent...

Mangroves are coastal hotspots for carbon storage and yet face multiple threats from anthropogenic activities. Here we explore the role of Fe-mediated organomineral interactions (FeOMI) in soil organic carbon (SOC) stabilization and its sensitivity to land use change (LUC) in Amazonian mangroves. First, we show that the poorly crystalline Fe oxides...

Mangroves forests may be important sinks of carbon in coastal areas but upon their death, these forests may become net sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. Here we assessed the spatial and temporal variability in soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes from dead mangrove forests and paired intact sites in SE-Brazil. Our findings dem...

A mining tailing dam rupture in Brazil in November 2015 released millions of tons of mining waste into the Rio Doce ecosystem, leading to long-term aquatic ecosystem impacts. Although multiple lines of evidence indicate tailings associations with potentially toxic elements in estuarine sediments and biological impact and bioaccumulation pathways in...

The Legal Amazon of Brazil holds vast mangrove forests, but a lack of awareness of their value has prevented their inclusion into results-based payments established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Based on an inventory from over 190 forest plots in Amazon mangroves, we estimate total ecosystem carbon stocks of 468 ± 67...

Mangrove forests are broadly recognized to support a variety of ecosystem services on coastal margins worldwide. These services may significantly contribute to the wellbeing of millions of people, but there is limited information about their importance in the Global South. This study mapped for the first time the flow of ecosystem services in Brazi...

In the region of Brazil, cold-water corals are distributed from the Equatorial to the Southern Brazilian margins and on nearby seamounts, mainly between 250 and 1200 m water depth, forming reefs, carbonate banks, and octocoral gardens. Larger reef structures formed by Lophelia pertusa are only known from the Southeast-Southern (SE-S) slope, with de...

Cold-water corals (CWC) form reef structures in continental margin and seamount settings at tropical, temperate, and even some polar latitudes. This global distribution makes them more widespread than shallow-water reefs, while their role in these regions is no less important than the influence that shallow-water coral reefs have on shallow, tropic...

The iAtlantic Project has established an international collaborative strategy to improve mapping and characterization of deep and open ocean ecosystems in understudied regions of the Atlantic and evaluate their health. In December 2022, the first iAtlantic expedition in the South Atlantic set off to map and explore seafloor ecosystems in the Santos...

Seawater contains a wealth of genetic information, representing the biodiversity of numerous species residing within a particular marine habitat. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding offers a cost effective, non-destructive method for large scale monitoring of environments, as diverse taxonomic groups are detected using metabarcoding assays. A la...

The Rio Doce estuary was critically impacted in 2015 by the world's largest mining tailing spill, with still unclear long-term effects on the aquatic biota. Here we present a long-term (2015 to 2020) assessment of estuarine benthic assemblages, where we demonstrate that despite a decline in the absolute concentrations of potentially toxic elements;...

The Fundão dam failure in 2015 severely impaired the economy, the lives of riverine communities and the aquatic ecosystems of the Rio Doce basin in SE Brazil. Several contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), were transported downstream, deposited on the estuary, and released into the Atlantic Ocean. The high concentration of...

The collapse of the Fundão dam (Southeast, Brazil) on November 5, 2015, released about 60 million m³ of iron ore tailings into the Doce River Basin (DRB), causing environmental impacts and social impacts. Two sediment cores were collected in August 2017 in the Doce River Mouth (DRM) to evaluate the environmental disaster using organic geochemical m...

The important role mangrove forests play in sequestering organic carbon is well known, yet rates of organic carbon accumulation in macro‐tidal mangrove ecosystems are poorly resolved. Here we use ²¹⁰ Pb dating to present a 125‐yr record of carbon, nutrient and trace metal accumulation in sediments from an Amazon macro‐tidal mangrove forest. We find...

Global marine conservation remains fractured by an imbalance in research efforts and policy actions, limiting progression towards sustainability. Rhodolith beds represent a prime example, as they have ecological importance on a global scale, provide a wealth of ecosystem functions and services, including biodiversity provision and potential climate...

Studies estimate that nearly 2 million new cases of gastric cancer will occur worldwide during the next two decades, which will increase mortality associated with cancer and the demand for new treatments. Marine algae of the Laurencia genus have secondary metabolites known for their cytotoxic action, such as terpenes and acetogenins. The species La...

Background Estuaries are transitional coastal ecosystems that are threatened by multiple sources of human pollution. In 2015, mining tailings from an upstream dam failure caused massive metal contamination that impacted benthic assemblages on the Brazilian Rio Doce estuary. Methods In this study, we investigate and compare meiofaunal assemblages w...

The Brazilian continental margin (BCM) extends from the Tropical to the Subtropical Atlantic Ocean, with much of its seafloor within deep waters, supporting rich geomorphological features and under wide productivity gradients. Deep-sea biogeographic boundaries on the BCM have been limited to studies that used water mass and salinity properties of d...

Rhodolith beds harbor a highly diverse associated biota. The Brazilian coast encompasses the world’s largest rhodolith beds of the world that occur along a wide latitudinal expanse, from off the Amazon River mouth in northern Brazil (5°N/49°W) to Santa Catarina State in southern Brazil (27°S/48°W). Although recent studies revealed diverse fish comm...

The overwhelming production of waste represents a complex environmental challenge for mining companies worldwide. Efforts are currently being made to develop methods for storing or reusing such potentially hazardous waste. Among innovative environmentally-friendly solutions, constructing Technosols from mining waste may be a feasible solution for r...

This dataset contains species occurrences of deep-sea benthic fauna distributed along the Brazilian Continental Margin (BCM). Existing records from published databases accessible online were synthesized to derive the deep-sea benthic diversity of the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Only records that had been identified to species level and...

Whale falls are considered important habitats contributing to biodiversity, evolutionary novelty and connectivity of deep-sea environments. The organic input of a whale carcass increases the community standing stock and changes the species composition in comparison with the surrounding benthic infauna. However, endofauna living inside the bone matr...

Mangrove forests have been reported as sinks for metals because of the immobilization of these elements in their soils. However, climate change may alter the functioning of these ecosystems. We aimed to assess the geochemical dynamics of Mn, Cu, and Zn in the soils of a mangrove forest dead by an extreme weather event in southeastern Brazil. Soil s...

Both freshwater floodplain (va ́rzeas and igapo ́s) forests and brackish-saline mangroves are abundant and well-described ecosystems in Brazil.1 However, an interesting and unique wetland forest exists in the Amazon Delta where extensive mangroves occur in essentially freshwater tidal environments. Unlike the floodplain forests found upriver, the h...

Manganese is a potentially toxic micronutrient with great ecological risk. In wetland soils, Mn bioavailability increases sharply with contamination hazards. Wetland plants may have different effects on Mn mobility and reactivity in soils, affecting their phytoremediation potential. This study evaluated the role of three naturally occurring wetland...

The bivalve families Teredinidae and Xylophagaidae include voracious consumers of wood in shallow and deep-water marine environments, respectively. The taxa are sister clades whose members consume wood as food with the aid of intracellular cellulolytic endosymbionts housed in their gills. This combination of adaptations is found in no other group o...

The red porgy (Pagrus pagrus) is a carnivore bottom dweller sparid, inhabiting flat sandy bottoms, rhodolith and seagrass beds of the Mediterranean Sea, the Western Atlantic (from Florida to Argentina) and the Eastern Atlantic (from Britain to Gabon). Along its native range, the red porgy is highly targeted by commercial and artisanal fisheries. In...

Advances in satellite observation have improved our capacity to track changes in the ocean with numerous ecological and conservation applications, which are yet under-explored for coastal ecology. In this study, we assessed the spatio-temporal dynamics in invertebrate larval recruitment and the Seascape Pelagic Habitat Classification, a satellite r...

Digital Bathymetric Model (DBM) with cell size of 93 m, created through a process of merging two original DBMs: Espírito Santo Basin DBM and Campos Basin DBM. Sectors, where the original DBMs overlapped, were excluded, as well as cells with missing data (NA) and those with depth values greater than zero. The fusion of the two DBMs were performed th...

Fe biogeochemistry is associated with important ecosystem services provided by mangrove forests, including carbon sequestration and the retention of potentially toxic elements. The biogeochemical processes controlling Fe fate in mangroves are naturally affected by the soil geochemical environment, which controls Fe dynamics. However, ongoing climat...

Iron (Fe) oxyhydroxides provide many functions in soils, mainly owing to their large surface area and high surface charge density. The reactivity of Fe oxyhydroxides is function of their mineralogical characteristics (e.g., crystallinity degree and crystal size). Detailed studies of these features are essential for predicting the stability and reac...

In 2015 a mine dam with Mn-Fe-rich tailings collapsed releasing million tons of sediments over an estuary, in the Southwest of Brazil. The tailings have a high concentration of metals that contaminated soil until the present day. The high contaminant concentrations possibly caused a selection for microorganisms able to strive in such harsh conditio...

Due to its abundance and role as a micronutrient for plants iron (Fe) is rarely perceived as a contaminant. However, in redox active environments, Fe bioavailability increases sharply representing an environmental risk. In this study, a recent catastrophic mining dam failure is used as a field framework to evaluate the role of wetland plants on Fe...

Rates of iron (Fe) reduction and oxidation greatly influence the release and retention of metals in redox-dynamic ecosystems such as estuaries. The fate of metals and Fe cycling operate in multiple timescales (days to years), but processes that occur from days to weeks have been poorly investigated, especially in estuarine soils contaminated with m...

Drought events may induce mangrove mortality and dieback events worldwide as a result of climate extremes. As mangroves sequester large quantities of carbon, quantifying the losses of these stocks following climate disturbances may guide wetland governance strategies globally. In Southeast Brazil, we determined the total ecosystem carbon stocks (TE...

After the largest mining tailings spill in Brazil, the Rio Doce estuarine ecosystem was severely impacted by metal contamination. In a 28-day laboratory experiment, we examined the effects of the polychaeta Laeonereis sp. on fluxes of oxygen and metal across the sediment-water interface. The density-dependent effect of Laeonereis sp. in the oxygen...

We report the complete genome sequence of Mucilaginibacter strain 21P, which was isolated from estuarine soil contaminated with mine tailings from the Samarco disaster, which occurred in 2015 in Brazil. The genome sequence comprised 4,739,655 bp, with a G+C content of 43.2%, and harbors multiple antibiotic and metal resistance genes.

The Rio Doce basin in SE Brazil was critically impacted in November 2015 by the spillage of millions of tons of mining waste. In the Rio Doce estuary, the tailings removed nearly 30% of estuarine benthic species and rapidly increased sediment contamination by metal(loid)s. Short-term impact assessments from 2015 to 2017 revealed severe ecological e...

Rhodolith beds increase the seabed complexity and are hotspots of biodiversity. Despite the crucial ecosystem services provided by rhodoliths, they are threatened by global change and local anthropogenic impacts. In this study, conducted on one of the largest beds of calcareous algae in the world located on the continental shelf of eastern Brazil,...

Este livro foi concebido a partir do Curso de Difusão Cultural Noções de Oceanografia, ministrado semestralmente desde 1993, por docentes, pós-graduandos, pós-doutorandos e técnicos do Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo (IOUSP), de forma voluntária, nas manhãs de domingo. Mesmo durante a pandemia o curso foi mantido e ministrado p...

Advances in satellite observation have improved our capacity to track changes in the ocean and seascapes with numerous ecological and conservation applications, but yet under explored for coastal ecology. In this study, we assessed dynamics in the Seascape Pelagic Habitat Classification, a satellite remote-sensing product developed by NOAA to monit...

Rhodoliths are free-living and morphologically diverse marine calcareous algae commonly distributed over the continental shelf seafloor. They increase the seabed structural complexity and are of potential value as feeding and reproductive grounds for a myriad of marine fauna. The higher structural seabed complexity within rhodolith beds may also in...

The Fundão dam rupture was one of the largest environmental disasters worldwide and released millions of m3 of iron ore tailings into the Doce River basin in southeastern Brazil. Here we assessed the supply of dissolved nutrients associated to tailings in the Doce River estuary and its adjacent coastal zone. First, we observed an acute increase in...

Em um passeio pelas praias do Brasil, você certamente já encontrou algumas pedras pela areia. Mas as que vamos apresentar aqui não são pedras comuns. Repare bem na imagem: elas são cheias de pequenos furos e têm uma cor avermelhada, com partes rosadas. Essas "pedras" são, na verdade, algas calcárias chamadas rodolitos (Rhodophyta), muito importante...

The role of Fe oxyhydroxides dynamic on metal bioavailability was studied in the Rio Doce estuary after the largest mining disaster in the world. Soon after the disaster in 2015, metals were associated with Fe oxy-hydroxides under a redox-active estuarine environment. Our results indicate that organic matter inputs from plant colonization on deposi...

Bacillus safensis 3A was isolated from a contaminated estuarine sediment sample with mine tailing from the Samarco dam disaster, which occurred in 2015 in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. We report here a draft genome sequence (3.6 Mb) of this bacterial strain. B. safensis exhibited strong resistance to heavy metals.

• The abyss lies between 3 and 6 km water depth and covers more of the Earth’s sur- face than all other habitats combined. • The present chapter is the first in the World Ocean Assessment that is dedicated to the abyss, covering biodiversity, regional dif- ferences, biogeography, and changes and impacts as a result of natural stressors and anthropo...

Seamounts and pinnacles are common topographic features of the global ocean. • Sampling effort has increased in recent years but only a small percentage of sea- mounts has been sampled in detail. • Limited sampling, combined with high en- vironmental variability among seamounts, constrains biodiversity knowledge. • Fishing, especially bottom trawli...

Kelps are canopy-forming brown seaweed sustaining critical ecosystem services in coastal habitats, including shelter and nursery grounds, and providing food resources to a myriad of associated species. This study modeled the fundamental niche of Laminaria abyssalis along the Brazilian continental margin, an endemic species of the South Atlantic, to...

oceano profundo compreende mais de 90 % do volume e cerca de 70 % da superfície habitável do planeta. Inclui uma grande diversidade de ecossistemas que se estendem desde a margem continental, em aproxima- damente 200 m de profundidade, percorrendo o talude continental até atingir as vastas planícies abissais e algumas fossas hadais a mais de 10 km...

The Amazon Basin is at the center of an intensifying discourse about deforestation, land-use, and global change. To date, climate research in the Basin has overwhelmingly focused on the cycling and storage of carbon (C) and its implications for global climate. Missing, however, is a more comprehensive consideration of other significant biophysical...

The Brazilian government agenda for downgrading and degazettement of protected ecosystems has seen an unprecedented move with the revocation of the mangrove's protection act in the country. As the second largest country in mangrove extent, with over 11,000 km 2 of forests that have been conserved for decades, mangroves may now be open for unsustain...

Mine tailings containing trace metals arrived at the Doce River estuary, after the world’s largest mine tailings disaster (the Mariana disaster) dumped approximately 50 million m³ of Fe-rich tailings into the Doce River Basin. The metals in the tailings are of concern because they present a bioavailability risk in the estuary as well as chronic exp...

In the context of the Doce river (Southeast Brazil) Fundão dam disaster in 2015, we monitored the changes in concentrations of metal(loid)s in water and sediment and their particulate and dissolved partitioning over time. Samples were collected before, during, and after the mine tailings arrival to the Doce river estuary (pre-impact: 12, 10, 3 and...

Manganese (Mn) is an abundant element in terrestrial and coastal ecosystems and an essential micronutrient in the metabolic processes of plants and animals. Mn is generally not considered a potentially toxic element due to its low content in both soil and water. However, in coastal ecosystems, the Mn dynamic (commonly associated with the Fe cycle)...

Drought periods may change mangrove litterfall production through water deprivation and increasing tree evapotranspiration, but these impacts have been rarely estimated. In Brazil, an intense drought and strong winds impacted mangrove forests leading to mass tree mortality in 2016, suggesting that forest productivity also declined rapidly. Fifteen...

Brazilian Deep-Sea Biodiversity presents water masses and oceanic circulation of the continental margin and adjacent abyssal plain off Brazil. It also describes the biodiversity on the continental margin, including deep-sea fishes, corals and microbes, with a focus on benthic biodiversity. The book discusses human impact and living and non-living r...

The availability of phosphorus (P) in estuarine ecosystems is ultimately controlled by the nature of interactions between dissolved P and the soil components (e.g., soil minerals), especially iron (Fe) oxyhydroxides. P retention on Fe oxyhydroxides and its subsequent availability depends on mineral crystallinity and susceptibility to dissolution. H...

The Brazilian Continental Margin hosts a diverse deep seafloor landscape including vast areas of sedimented slopes, submarine canyons, reef-forming and solitary cold-water corals, methane seeps and pockmarks, seamounts, and guyots. The vast biodiversity associated with deep-sea benthic habitats remain largely undescribed with only a few, mostly des...

The deep sea is the widest ecosystem on Earth and has been long recognized as a research frontier in marine sciences. The logistical challenges to study offshore eco- systems, sometimes located kilometers below the sea surface, are tremendous and require significant investment that limits sampling on those areas. Therefore, we know very little abou...

In Brazil, deep-sea marine environments extend over 3.5 million km², covering nearly 80% of Brazil’s Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) in the southern tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean. Over this area, the exploitation of both living and non-living resources have gradually increased and supported by natural geological resources, scientific knowle...