Henrique Queiroga

University of Aveiro | UA · Biology Department & Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM)

Environmental and nature conservation authorities are calling for a collective effort to break or reduce the current cycle of environmental degradation. Much of the response depends on scientific knowledge production based on thematically and geographically comprehensive datasets. Citizen science (CS) is a cost-effective support tool for scientific...

Numerical biophysical models are a standard methodology used to provide estimates of larval dispersal and population connectivity for marine species with a bi-phasic life cycle. However, confidence on biophysical models, tested by confronting model estimates with empirical evidence, is seldomly assessed. We compared time-series estimates of larval...

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) require effective indicators to assess their performance, in compliance with the goals of relevant national and international commitments. Achieving and prioritizing shortlists of multidisciplinary indicators demands a significant effort from specialists to depict the multiple conservation and socioeconomic interests,...

Understanding large-scale spatial and temporal patterns of marine populations is a central goal in ecology, which has received renewed attention under climate change. However, few studies explore the large-scale dynamics of populations using standardized protocols and during the same time frames. We studied the phenology and intensity of reproducti...

Oceanic islands are recognized evolutionary hotspots for terrestrial organisms, but little is known about their impact on marine organisms’ evolution and biogeography. The volcanic archipelagos of Macaronesia occupy a vast and complex region in the Atlantic Ocean and may be particularly suitable to investigate marine island biogeography. In this st...

In January 2020, a stakeholder workshop was organized as a knowledge sharing strategy among European stalked barnacle fisheries. Management of this fishery differs greatly among regions and ranges from less organized and governed at large scales (>100 km, coasts of SW Portugal and Brittany in France) to highly participatory systems which are co-man...

The Working Group on Resilience and Marine Ecosystem Services (WGRMES) aims to improve scientific understanding and capacity to design data collection networks and methodologies in order to analyze the ecological, economic, social, and institutional dimensions of marine ecosystem services. The group progressed work in relation to five objectives:...

The lack of effective governance is a major concern in small-scale fisheries. The implementation of governance that encompasses the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic, and ecological) is still a worldwide challenge. We examined nine stalked barnacle fisheries (Pollicipes pollicipes) across Southwest Europe to better understand the re...

Bivalve relevance for ecosystem functioning and human food security emphasize the importance of predictions of mussel performance under different climate stressors. Here, we address the effect of a latitudinal gradient of temperature and food availability on the fecundity of the Mediterranean mussel to try to better parameterize environmental forci...

Oceanic islands are recognized evolutionary hotspots for terrestrial organisms, but little is known about their impact on marine organisms' evolution and biogeography. The volcanic archipelagos of Macaronesia occupy a vast and complex region which is particularly suitable to investigate marine island biogeography. In this study, we used mitochondri...

The book content is deriving from several regional Marine Science for Management (MASMA) courses on scientific methodologies in marine ecology undertaken by WIOMSA (The Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association) undertaken at Inhaca Marine Biological Station and Pemba Bay. This manual is a comprehensive and integrated training resource to add...

This is the first attempt to apply an expert-based ecological vulnerability assessment of the effects of climate change on the main marine resources of Portugal. The vulnerability, exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and expected directional effects of 74 species of fish and invertebrates of commercial interest is estimated based on criteria...

Relationship between overall vulnerability, directional effects and indicators

Expected environmental change in the context of climate change

Bootstrap analysis

Description of the indicators used during the vulnerability assessment

Selection of species

Results of the vulnerability assessment under climate change scenario RCP 4.5.

The marine neuston, organisms living in the vicinity of the ocean surface, is one of the least studied zooplankton groups. Neuston occupies a restricted ecological niche and is affected by a wide range of endogenous and exogenous processes while also being a food source to zooplankton fish migrating from the deep layers and seabirds. In this study,...

Scuba diving is one of the most popular coastal recreational activities, and one of the few that are allowed in multiple-use marine protected areas. Nevertheless, like many other coastal activities, if in excess, it may harm coastal ecosystems and their sustainable use. This paper focuses on the seascape and landscape characteristics that are most...

Recent advances in technology have enabled an unprecedented development of underwater research, extending from near shore to the deepest regions of the globe. However, monitoring of biodiversity is not fully implemented in political agendas and biological observations in the deep ocean have been even more limited in space and time. The Foresight W...

Human‐mediated transport creates secondary contacts between genetically differentiated lineages, bringing new opportunities for gene exchange. When similar introductions occur in different places, they provide informally replicated experiments for studying hybridisation. We here examined 4279 Mytilus mussels, sampled in Europe and genotyped with 77...

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 mari...

Human-mediated transport creates secondary contacts between genetically differentiated lineages, bringing new opportunities for gene exchange. When similar introductions occur in different places, they provide informally replicated experiments for studying hybridisation. We here examined 4279 Mytilus mussels, sampled in Europe and genotyped with 77...

Problem statement Large-scale global initiatives aiming to acquire a comprehensive catalogue of all living species and tackle the different biodiversity knowledge shortfalls (Hortal et al., 2012), have promoted the generation of vast amounts of DNA sequence data. The use of DNA barcodes as a universal system for DNA-based species identification, na...

The PERCEBES project aspires to answer questions regarding the effects of harvesting on the intertidal community and recovery potential of stalked barnacle populations after harvesting, for which a Human Exclusion Experiment has been deployed over 2 years in 4 regions: coast of Alentejo (Portugal), Atlantic Islands (Galicia, Spain), Western Asturia...

Background: In the ocean, the variability of environmental conditions found along depth gradients exposes populations to contrasting levels of perturbation, which can be reflected in the overall patterns of species genetic diversity. At shallow sites, resource availability may structure large, persistent and well-connected populations with higher...

The main objective of this work is to promote Ecosystem Based Management (EBM), using a complex Atlantic region, to demonstrate how the InVEST model tool and associated methods can be applied to calculate benthic habitats cumulative risk and to create a vulnerability index of the potential of these habitats to deliver ecosystem services (ES). The s...

Diversification and speciation of terrestrial organisms is anticipated in oceanic islands such as Macaronesia, a group of Atlantic islands that have remained unconnected to continental landmasses. Hitherto, the diversification of marine organisms in oceanic islands, especially those with low vagility, has received little direct empirical analysis u...

The Northeast Atlantic (NEA) is an important and complex biogeographic region with a very rich marine fauna. However, little is known about the role of the Macaronesian islands in the evolutionary history and diversification of marine invertebrates in the NEA. Among the amphipods, the members of the family Hyalidae are particularly common and abund...

In coastal urban areas, landscape changes are driven by strongly interrelated factors such as land use change, population development, and cultural transformations. The interactions between the social and the ecological systems mean that the population wellbeing can be affected by a depletion of supply. Consequently, a methodological approach needs...

A high quality data collection has been carried out between 2004 and 2014 to develop the first trophic ECOPATH model for the functioning of the sub and intertidal zones of Ria de Aveiro. This schematic representation allows the characterization of the most important compartments of biomass and flows of energy representing the functioning of the eco...

Fiddler crabs are known as ecosystem engineers as well as important connectors of energy flow between the intertidal zone and the adjacent marine and terrestrial environments, being predated by both marine and terrestrial species. Studies on their activity patterns are critical to understand their overall role in the function of estuarine ecosystem...

The valuation of nature is an inbuilt component of validating environmental management decisions and an important research field for different disciplines related to conservation, economy and ethics. Here, biodiversity was valued using an ecological approach based on the intrinsic value incorporated in biodiversity per se, regardless of any human a...

Marine larval dispersal is a complex biophysical process that depends on the effects of species biology and oceanography, leading to logistical difficulties in estimating connectivity among populations of marine animals with biphasic life cycles. To address this challenge, the application of multiple methodological approaches has been advocated, in...

The harvesting of bait through digging in coastal mudflats is practiced for recreational and commercial purposes in European coastal systems including the Ria de Aveiro coastal lagoon on the northwest Atlantic coast of Portugal. The scale of harvesting in the Ria de Aveiro has recently increased due to the current economic climate in Portugal, with...

This policy brief was produced in the context of the research project “The Economic Valuation and Governance of Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services”, a project supported by the Gulbenkian Oceans Initiative within the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and developed by the NOVA School of Business and Economics and by the Centre for Environmental and M...

Este policy brief foi produzido no contexto do Projeto de investigação “The Economic Valuation and Governance of Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services”, o qual foi financiado pela Iniciativa Oceanos da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian e desenvolvido pela Nova School of Business and Economics e pelo Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar (CESAM) da Univ...

For decapod crustaceans, the larval phase is the main responsible for dispersal, given the direct emission from adult habitats into the water column. Circulation patterns and behavioural mechanisms control the dispersal distance and connectivity between different areas. Information on larval distribution and abundance is required to predict the siz...

DNA barcode reference library for marine amphipods

DNA barcode reference library for the superorder Peracarida

Patterns of genetic variation within a species may be used to infer past events in the evolutionary history of marine species. In the present study we aimed to compare the genetic diversity of the red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. For genetic markers we used microsatellites and a mitochondrial gene f...

The shanny Lipophrys pholis is an intertidal fish commonly found in Portuguese coastal waters. Spawning takes place from early autumn to mid spring, after which demersal eggs hatch and larvae disperse along the coast. Two to three months later, young juveniles return to the tide pools to settle. However, information on fish movement, habitat connec...

The shanny Lipophrys pholis is an intertidal fish commonly found in Portuguese coastal waters. Spawning takes place from early autumn to mid spring, after which demersal eggs hatch and larvae disperse along the coast. Two to three months later, young juveniles return to the tide pools to settle. However, information on fish movement, habitat connec...

Maternal effects and larval experience are considered the most important sources of variability in offspring phenotypes in marine invertebrates. Maternal provisioning during oogenesis is the first of a series of processes that will ultimately affect offspring phenotype and population dynamics. The keystone species of several European estuarine envi...

Clonal propagation is a common feature of benthic marine organisms. In the present study, we investigated the contribution of clonal reproduction in the red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata. Mediterranean populations of P. clavata were severely affected by mass mortality events caused by increased water temperature in 1999 and 2003. The populations ar...

Mapping and quantifying bottom trawling fishing pressure on the seafloor is pivotal to understand its effects on deep-sea benthic habitats. Using data from the Vessel Monitoring System of crustacean trawlers along the Portuguese margin, we have identified the most exploited areas and characterized the most targeted habitats and water depths. We est...

Age, growth, sex and gonadal maturation of the shanny, Liphorys pholis, were determined in specimens caught in a rocky intertidal area in northern Portugal in order to provide essential ecological data on the species. This study represents the first available reference in the literature for L. pholis in a southern European location. Totals of 251 i...

Sphaeromatid isopods, such as Dynamene, are common and abundant members of the invertebrate fauna of littoral and shallow sublittoral substrates. Six species of Dynamene occur in the northern hemisphere. Only two species exist outside this range, in Australia. The distribution of the various species in the NE Atlantic-Black Sea axis has been contro...

Material examined in this study

List of locations where Dynamene specimens were recorded in this study

Benthic communities play a key role in the maintenance of ocean and coastal ecosystems’ processes. Supplementary information is required to increase knowledge about their structure, in order to improve conservation strategies for threatened species. Assessing structure and diversity of these communities can be rather challenging, due to technical d...

Studying the trends, evolution, and factors driving marine fish populations and fisheries is fundamental to understand the role of marine fish as a provisioning Ecosystem Service. During the last 26 years, marine fish landings in mainland Portugal suffered a 52% drop, mainly due to the decrease of sardine landings. In order to throw some light on t...

The CdM ISC'16 is the second science conference organized by Campus do Mar, a cross-border network of research, teaching and technology transfer units based in Galicia and Northern Portugal. The theme of the conference, "Oceans: future sustainability challenges", reflects the growing understanding of the importance of ocean sustainability in cruci...