Juan C. F. Pardo

Universitetet i Agder | UIA · Department of Natural Sciences

Given the complexity of current environmental challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity conservation and governance, the interdisciplinary approach to science has gained increased awareness and use in the global scientific community. Similarly, ocean sustainability is a topic of concern, often voiced in international fora. These discussio...

Climate change is imposing constant and more severe environmental challenges to coastal and marine species. Regional climate and species acclimation capacity determine the communities' ecological response to stressors. Marine heatwave events are of serious threat to species fitness and survivorship, even more to the sensitive early-history stages o...

Amphipod crustaceans are important components of the benthic coastal fauna. Despite several efforts, the Azorean soft bottom water communities are still not fully comprehended in the Archipelago. During the "Meiozores 2019 Summer School-Exploring the meiofauna of the Azores", amphipods were collected among meiofauna shallow water samples from sever...

Ocean literacy is essential to increase awareness and educate people about the importance of our ocean. Students are among the main actors to build an ocean-literate society. Outreach initiatives, for instance, have an educational potential to transfer knowledge in a practical way. Here, we report an outreach activity with students about meiofaunal...

In July 2019 an international team of 39 senior and junior researchers from nine countries met at the University of the Azores in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel for a 10-days workshop/summer school to explore the meiofaunal biodiversity in marine sediments of the Azores. In total, we sampled intertidal and subtidal sediments from 54 localities on 14 ma...

Our changing climate is affecting predator-prey interactions in different ways. Increasing atmospheric CO2 is acidifying the ocean and disrupting the chemosensation of several species. Here, we evaluated a risk-induced trait response to a potential predator under an acidified scenario. Using planktonic crab larvae as a prey model, we first verified...

The value of interdisciplinarity for solving complex coastal problems is widely recognized. Many early career researchers (ECRs) therefore actively seek this type of collaboration through choice or necessity, for professional development or project funding. However, establishing and conducting interdisciplinary research collaborations as an ECR has...

Predicted effects of anthropogenic climate change on estuarine and coastal organisms are complex, and early life history stages of calcified ectotherms are amongst the most sensitive groups. Despite the importance of understanding their vulnerability, we lack information on the effects of multiple stressors on the embryonic development of estuarine...

Climate change is drastically altering environmental conditions and resource availability. Many organisms are shifting their distribution boundaries. Fiddler crabs, for instance, are important ecosystem engineers in coastal environments that have been extending their distribution range poleward. In this study, we evaluated the influence of a range-...

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a new social and academic reality to researchers worldwide. The field of marine science, our own topic of interest, has also been impacted in multiple ways, from cancelation of laboratory and field activities to postponement of onboard research. As graduate researchers, we have a time-sensitive academ...

Fiddler crabs are abundant, semi-terrestrial crustaceans inhabiting tropical, subtropical and warm temperate coasts worldwide. Some species build above-ground sedimentary structures at or near the opening to their burrows. The functions and shapes of these constructions vary interspecifically and according to the sex of the builder. Here, we compil...

While increasing awareness about ocean-related topics is a matter of urgent necessity, ocean and coastal-literate schoolchildren are uncommon in Brazil, even in coastal cities. In the present study, we report the activities of an environmental education project spanning a 3-year period in São Vicente, a city surrounded by marine habitats in the sou...

Fiddler crabs construct and maintain above-ground sedimentary structures that vary in shape and function. We describe for the first time the behavior of the construction of semidomes, a type of sedimentary structure, in Minuca rapax (Smith, 1870) and the relationship of semidomes to other fiddler crab structures. We observed how semidomes are built...