Isabel Domingos

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• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Lisbon

The globally threatened European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is the only freshwater fish native to Macaronesia. Despite being a keystone species to freshwater habitats, little is known about its population, environmental associations and conservation requirements in oceanic islands. The density and geographical-related factors influencing the distribut...

The glass eel catch from the international River Minho, western Iberian Peninsula, forms the southernmost Atlantic series in the composite index outside the North Sea assessing European eel recruitment. Here, new experimental yield data from the lower estuary (1981–2022) and fishers´ daily records (1990–2022) were modelled to describe and compare s...

The green crab (Carcinus maenas) population was investigated in a coastal lagoon (Santo André) located on the southwest coast of Portugal. This study assessed the spatial-temporal variability of green crab abundance in the lagoon and its relationship with environmental variables. Experimental fishing was used to collect data on abundance, size stru...

The upstream movement of juvenile eels (median total length (TL) = 138 mm) in the Mondego River, Portugal, was analysed between January 2017 and August 2019. A total of 12,019 individuals (TL ranging from 60 to 287 mm) were counted and measured on an eel ladder at Coimbra weir, 44 km upstream from the river mouth, during their upstream movements. A...

Marine litter represents a threat to the marine environment, being estimated that around eight million items are discarded daily in the ocean. Monitoring marine debris became a relevant topic of research as marine litter is one of the descriptors of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, for European Union's member states. Nevertheless, the patte...

The meagre is among the largest Sciaenidae in the world (max: 230 cm, 103 kg), with a wide distribution range encompassing the NE and CE Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The life cycle in Atlantic waters includes migratory movements from feeding and overwintering areas at sea to spawning and nursery areas in estuaries and coastal waters. H...

1. Interactions between cetaceans and the purse seine fishery in coastal waters of mainland Portugal were investigated using onboard observations over a period of 15 years (2003–2018). In 10% of the fishing sets, there were interactions with one of three species of cetaceans: common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatu...

The Joint EIFAAC/ICES/GFCM Working group on eels (WGEEL) met by correspondence and video conference from September 7 – 10 September and 27 September – 4 October in 2021 to assess the state of the European eel and its fisheries, investigate the effects of contaminants on the reproductive capacity of the eel stock, discuss the findings of WKFEA, furt...

Age and growth of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) from a coastal lagoon in southwestern Europe were investigated using a sample of 871 eels. Fish were caught with fyke nets in two fishing seasons, 2011/12 and 2015/16. Age was determined by reading sagittal otoliths and age estimates were validated through semi-direct methods. The yellow and silver...

The SUDOANG project aims at providing common tools to managers to support eel conservation in the SUDOE area (Spain, France and Portugal). VISUANG is the SUDOANG Interactive Web Application that will host all these tools. The application consists of an eel distribution atlas (GT1), assessments of mortalities caused by turbines and an atlas showing...

Mistrust between scientists and non-scientist stakeholders is a key challenge in fishery management. The support of management with complex models is difficult, as these models cannot easily communicate their results to end users, resulting in a lack of confidence. As an example, the complex life cycle of the European eel raises problems of coordin...

Mistrust between scientists and non-scientist stakeholders is a key challenge in fishery management. This problem is exacerbated with the use of complex models to support management: these models suffer from difficulties in communicating their results and a lack of confidence from end users. The European eel is an illustrative example; its complex...

Este “Guia de Peixes de Água Doce e Migradores de Portugal Continental” constitui a primeira obra completa, de âmbito nacional, sobre as espécies que ocorrem nos ecossistemas fluviais continentais. A maioria destas espécies é estritamente dulciaquícola, contudo, algumas são migradoras e frequentam também o meio marinho para efeitos de reprodução ou...

The Joint EIFAAC/ICES/GFCM Working group on eels (WGEEL) met by correspondence and video conference from September 21–28 in 2020 to assess the state of the European eel, investigate the effects of habitat loss on the eel stock and its management, review and update the Stock Annex, prepare the 2021 Data Call and report on any updates to the scientif...

One of the actions that has been implemented to support the recovery of the panmictic population of European eel is stocking of waterbodies where natural recruitment is low or null. However, growth conditions of the stocked eels can vary greatly. This circumstance emphasises the importance to determine ideal habitat conditions to contribute to the...

The catadromous life cycle of the European eel encompasses a spawning migration to the Sargasso Sea. Prior to their migration, eels develop a silver coloration being referred to as “silver eels.” Due to the dramatic European eel recruitment decline, it is crucial to quantify silver eel escapement to evaluate the success of measures taken under Eel...

In an attempt to assist the recovery of the panmictic population of the European eel, declining since the late 1980s, the restocking of areas with low or no natural recruitment has been one of the measures adopted to reverse this trend. However, the main focus in several monitoring programmes for these actions, has been in the best interest of its...

The adoption of the EC Regulation 1100/2007 for the recovery of the European eel required EU member states to implement and periodically report on their Eel Management Plans (EMPs) with the goal of achieving at least 40% of the silver eel escapement relative to the best estimate of escapement that would have existed if no anthropogenic influences h...

In the past three decades the European eel Anguilla anguilla experienced up to 99% decline in recruitment in some parts of its distribution range. In addition to this long-term trend, glass eel recruitment exhibits significant inter-annual variability partially explained by large-scale oceanographic processes as well as local-scale meteorological a...

The hydrozoan Blackfordia virginica has been reported over a wide geographical area, although it is mainly restricted to scattered records within estuarine areas of temperate and tropical regions. The aim of this study was to understand the spatial and temporal variability of an established population of this non-indigenous species on a temperate e...

Mangroves are recognised as important nursery and feeding areas for resident and inshore fish species. However, the importance of West African mangroves to the life cycle of fish communities remains poorly studied. The present study is the first record of fish species in tropical insular mangroves for this region and its aim was to assess habitat u...

European eel (Anguilla anguilla) recruitment has been declining at least since the early 1980s at the scale of its distribution area. Since the population is panmictic, its stock assessment should be carried out on a range-wide basis. However, assessing the overall stock during the continental phase remains difficult given its widespread distributi...

Mangroves are tropical estuarine forests, well-known for providing key ecosystem services. We conducted the first survey of mangroves in island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe, focusing on the biodiversity, ecosystem services and threats in two areas of São Tomé Island's Obô Natural Park. Praia das Conchas' land vertebrate assemblage was typical of...

Quantifying the trophic dynamics of invasive species in novel habitats is important for predicting the success of potential invaders and evaluating their ecological effects. The North American pumpkinseed sunfish Lepomis gibbosus is a successful invader in Europe, where it has caused negative ecological effects primarily through trophic interaction...

Quantifying the trophic dynamics of invasive species in novel habitats is important for predicting the success of potential invaders and evaluating their ecological effects. The North American pumpkinseed sunfish Lepomis gibbosus is a successful invader in Europe, where it has caused negative ecological effects primarily through trophic interaction...

Landlocked lagoons are naturally stressed environments. They are strongly influenced by freshwater input which not only varies naturally, but which is also impacted by anthropogenic activities. This study investigated the direct influence of freshwater discharges on the distribution patterns and abundance of benthic communities in two neighbouring...

The European Waterframework Directive requires the assessment of ecological status of all water bodies, including rivers, estuaries, coastal areas, emphasizing that the status of surface aquatic ecosystems might depend on groundwater status. The assessment of the ecological status of coastal lagoons dependent on groundwater is particularly complex...

Over the last decades the eel fishery in Santo Andr Lagoon experienced a dramatic decline due to the implementation of stricter rules, namely integration of the lagoon in a protected area, creation of an area of professional fishing and more recently, the establishment of a Closed Season (October to December). Because professional fishermen can fis...

The study of groundwater dependent ecosystems opened the opportunity to involve specialists of different areas of knowledge in order to obtain answers for complex interrelations between groundwater and the associated ecosystems. The actual study, carried out in two coastal lagoons of the Portuguese SW coast, showed the high dependency of the marine...

Infection of the European eel, Anguilla anguilla, by the swimbladder nematode Anguillicoloides crassus was investigated in Portuguese brackish water systems. A total of 315 yellow eels was examined, revealing a prevalence of 30% and an intensity of 3.1 worms per swimbladder. Prevalence (P) values were higher in both estuarine systems studied: Tagus...

The diets and trophic ecology of the dominant fish species from the marine coastal region of Aveiro (north-western Portugal) caught during a summer survey were studied. Mysids were the most important prey group for the fish assemblage analysed. As a consequence, there was a high dietary overlap between species and a low incidence of piscivory. Neve...

Age and growth of Pontinus kuhlii were studied using otoliths of 153 males and 148 females, with males having a greater length (and age) than females. A high level of agreement was achieved among readers. Due to gear selectivity, only ages above 7 years (males) and 8 years (females) were estimated in whole otoliths. To estimate length-at-age in you...

Land-locked coastal lagoons are naturally stressed environments that consequently constrain biological communities that colonize these systems, through direct or indirect influence. This study investigated the influence of groundwater outflows and catchment runoff on the fish community of Melides and Santo André, two land-locked coastal lagoons in...

The assessment of water quality has changed markedly worldwide over the last years, especially in Europe due to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Fish was considered a key-element in this context and several fish-based multi-metric indices have been proposed. In this study, we propose a multi- metric index, the Estuarine Fish Ass...

Accumulation of metals (Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn) in the liver and muscle of the European eel, (Anguilla Anguilla), the influence of sex and size on tissue contamination, and the potential use of this species as a pollution biomonitor in the Tagus estuary were investigated. A total of 90 eels were captured in spring 2007 from six sampling stations. Me...

The concentration of Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn in the liver of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) was determined to evaluate the contamination burden of this species in Portuguese brackish water systems (Aveiro lagoon, Óbidos lagoon, Tagus estuary, Santo André lagoon and Mira estuary) and relate it to anthropogenic pressures within those ecosystems....

The prime objective of this study was to evaluate differences between the swimming performance of two distinct life stages of European eels. The critical swimming speed (Ucrit) of 29 yellow- and 33 silver-phase eels was evaluated in a swim tunnel. Silver-phase eels showed a better swimming performance (Ucrit = 0.66 ms−1) than yellow individuals (Uc...

Infection of the European eel Anguilla anguilla by the swimbladder nematode Anguillicoloides crassus was investigated for the first time at 5 sampling sites in the Tagus estuary (Portugal). A total of 332 yellow eels were examined, revealing a prevalence of 56% and a mean intensity of 3.2 lumen worms per swimbladder. The effect of the host's sex an...

The Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus, and the European eel, Anguilla anguilla, are benthic fish species, which occur in sympatry in the southern Iberian Peninsula and north-west Africa. The consequences of this sympatry were evaluated through the analysis of distribution, abundance and feeding ecology of both species in the Mira estuar...

A total of 1,816 eels were sampled in 1988, from seven sampling areas. Four areas were located in brackish water and the remaining three were located in freshwater reaches of the Tagus river basin. Eels were more abundant in the middle estuary and decreased both in the upstream and in the downstream directions, with a predominance of males in highe...

1. The distribution and abundance of the European eel, Anguilla anguilla , were investigated in the Mondego River, a strongly modified river in central Portugal. Nine freshwater sites, located below the first impassable obstacle to eel migration, were surveyed for 2 years. The study was conducted monthly during the first year and seasonally during...

La grande alose (Alosa alosa) et l’alose feinte (Alosa fallax) sont des poissons migrateurs anadromes menacés non seulement au Portugal mais dans toute leur aire de distribution géographique. La surexploitation et la pêche illégale, la pollution, les obstacles physiques et les modifications du lit des rivières semblent être les principales raisons...

Only three cases of landlocked populations of allis shad (Alosa alosa L.) were reported until the present, being two of them in Portugal. In this paper, data on the feeding habits and condition of these two populations sampled between 1998 and 1999 are presented. Both populations are zooplanktivorous, with cladocerans (Family Daphniidae) and cyclo...

The characterisation of the fish and invertebrates communities of Vouga, Mondego and Lis basins was based on Summer (1998) and Spring samples (1999). Detrended correspondence analysis were performed with the total number of fish captures (obtained by electric fishing gear) and macroinvertebrate captures (kick- sampling). These results were indirect...