Lurdes Borges Silva

University of the Azores | UAc · Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO)

Lagoa do Canário is one of the most picturesque places in São Miguel Island (Azores, Portugal). Nevertheless, bryologists have not recorded much around its area, and it is suspected that the bryophyte inventory is incomplete. In this study, we present the list of bryophyte species historically gathered around Lagoa do Canário, as well as a field ac...

The potential of biomass for energy production has been widely studied, and recently gained new impetus with the attention now devoted to renewable energies. In Graciosa Island, Azores, there is a ongoing project from Younicos AG together with the Azorean Government and the energy supplier, EDA, with the goal to achieve 65% of renewable energy supp...

Background The data presented here originated from field expeditions carried out between 2017 and 2018, within the framework of Forest-Eco2 project: "Towards an Ecological and Economic valorisation of the Azorean Forest". The project aimed to quantify the ecological value of the Azorean forests, including carbon accumulation and to design and propo...

Forests on oceanic islands, such as the Azores archipelago, enable interesting dendroclimatic research, given their pronounced climatic gradients over short geographical distances, despite the less pronounced seasonality. The Lauraceae play an essential ecological role in Macaronesian natural forests. An example is Laurus azorica (Seub.) Franco, a...

Dendroclimatic records in areas with high relative humidity and low thermal amplitude are manifestly scarcer and only a few studies are applied to species that are present in areas with weak seasonality. The Azores archipelago with temperate climate, with low thermal amplitude, has unique biodiversity, including the Azorean holly, Ilex azorica Gand...

Premise of the study: Plants endemic to oceanic archipelagos are suitable for studying evolution, being isolated on substrates of different ages. Evolution has been recent, rendering traditionally-employed sequences insufficiently variable for resolving relationships. This study includes sampling in the genus Tolpis (Asteraceae) from the Azores, M...

Assessment of forest ecosystems and their services is seen as a key action for the advancement of biodiversity objectives, and to inform the development and implementation of related policies and planning. The Azorean forest is important for timber production, the protection of soil and water resources, and for its recreational and aesthetic value....

Tourists have become increasingly interested in certain aspects of their destination, including landscape and biodiversity elements, thereby promoting the development of nature-based tourism. The Azores are considered a sustainable tourism destination, with various natural attractions, including hiking trails. Based on the hypothesis that natural v...

Tree-ring inter-annual pattern variation is crucial in dendrochronology, allowing the identification of possible limiting factors on growth. Thus, trees exposed to subtropical or tropical climates without a marked seasonality may show a low degree of interannual variation, impeding a straightforward dendroclimatological approach. Meanwhile, subtrop...

Assessment of forest ecosystems and their services is seen as a key action for the advancement of biodiversity objectives, and to inform the development and implementation of related policies and planning. We assessed biodiversity, structure and carbon stocks in a gradient of three forest types (Natural Forest-NF; Exotic Woodland-EW and Production...

Tree-ring interannual pattern variation is crucial in dendrochronology, allowing the identification of possible limiting factors on growth. Thus, trees exposed to sub-tropical or tropical climates without a marked seasonality, may show a low degree of interannual variation, impeding a straightforward dendroclimatological approach. Meanwhile, subtro...

Genome-wide genotyping and Bayesian inference method (BORICE) were employed to estimate outcrossing rates and paternity in two small plant populations of Tolpis succulenta (Asteraceae) on Graciosa island in the Azores. These two known extant populations of T. succulenta on Graciosa have recently evolved self-compatibility. Despite the expectation t...

Forests provide a broad range of ecosystem services, but their contribution is not homogeneous. Due to land changes associated with anthropogenic activity, primordial forests have been replaced by production and secondary forest, often constituted by exotic woodland, particularly in islands. This research addresses ecological and economic valorisat...

Nature-based tourism is the new paradigm of nature destinations, thus tourists are increasingly interested in peculiar aspects related with local landscape and biodiversity. The Azores are considered a sustainable nature destination, with several tourist attractions including hiking trails. To test the hypothesis that natural vegetation/forest may...

Baker's law posits that self-compatible (SC) plant colonizers of oceanic islands should be more frequent than self-incompatible (SI) colonists because sexually-reproducing populations can originate from a single SC colonizer whereas two or more SI compatible mates are necessary. SC is over represented in insular Asteraceae compared to mainland memb...

As in many archipelagos, the Azorean primary forest was largely cleared and replaced by secondary forest and grassland, the Azorean tree Laurus azorica (Seub.) Franco being one of the dominant trees in the remaining natural forests. Dendrochronological and dendrometric studies in the Azores mainly focused on non-indigenous trees, either used for ti...

Globally, island forests have suffered considerable anthropogenic change, and the respective scientific knowledge is still heterogeneous. This is evident in the Azores, where only about 10% of the native forest remains, production forest is largely dominated by one species, and invasive woodland has spread. Dendrochronology is the basis of a better...

Asteraceae have the most endemic species of any flowering plant family in oceanic archipelagos, and these insular endemics display a higher frequency of self-compatibility (SC) compared to mainland composites. However, little attention has focused on the evolution of selfing in situ in islands. The genus Tolpis (Asteraceae) in the Macaronesian arch...

As plantas exóticas, introduzidas acidental ou propositadamente pelas atividades humanas, são uma importante componente da flora terrestre em Portugal. Na região Autonoma dos Açores um terço das manchas florestais é dominado por Pittosporum undulatum, ameaçando os ecossistemas naturais, nomeadamente a vegetação nativa. Têm sido realizados um conjun...

As one cause for biodiversity loss, invasive alien species are a worldwide threat. However, exotic woodland can also have an enormous biomass potential. The goal of this study was to evaluate the available aboveground biomass (AGB, including trunk, branches and foliage) of the widespread woody plant invader Pittosporum undulatum in the exotic woodl...

Natural areas located outside protected areas can provide important refugees for biodiversity conservation, as well as important ecosystem and biodiversity services. In the Azores, about 23% of the land territory is protected, but there are still many natural areas that lack protection status. In this research, we tested this hypothesis by analysin...

The use of biomass for energy production has shown a growing interest in recent years. Pittosporum undulatum is a widespread invasive tree in the Azores archipelago with a considerable potential as an energy resource. Sustainable use of forest resources demands accurate and precise estimation of standing biomass but for the Azores only a few studie...

Pittosporum undulatum Ventenat (Pittosporaceae) is an invasive tree of forests and woodlands in several regions of the world. In the Azores archipelago it occupies about 30% of the forested areas and efforts to valorize its biomass are underway. Implementing sustainable forest management requires basic information on tree age and growth rate, yet t...

Tree density is an important parameter affecting ecosystems functions and management decisions, while tree distribution patterns affect sampling design. Pittosporum undulatum stands in the Azores are being targeted with a biomass valorization program, for which efficient tree density estimators are required. We compared í T-Square sampling, Point C...

The pollen fertility of F1 hybrids, ranging from progeny within natural populations to synthetic hybrids between species of Tolpis from three archipelagos in Macaronesia, was determined. Pollen fertility of F1 hybrids of inter-archipelago crosses from the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira were generally lower than crosses between populations or species...

The recently evolved genus Tolpis Adans. has its major center of diversity located in Macaronesia. Although recent advances have been made to understand the relationships of Tolpis species within Macaronesia, little is still known about the genetic patterns and genetic diversity of the Azorean and Madeiran Tolpis populations. To achieve this, a set...

Knowledge of the Azores flora has historically relied on the study of collections obtained during sporadic and brief visits conducted by collectors and naturalists coming from abroad. However, the far oceanic location of the Azores made it more inaccessible to these early studies than other Atlantic archipelagos, such as the Canary Islands and Made...

This research evaluates the potential of tree age determination methods and standing biomass models in management of forest resources, particularly in those areas dominated by exotic woodland. The study aims to evaluate the possibility of modelling Pittosporum undulatum tree age based on ring analysis and on dendrometric traits; modelling P. undula...

Plants on oceanic islands often originate from self-compatible (SC) colonizers capable of seed set by self-fertilization. This fact is supported by empirical studies, and is rooted in the hypothesis that one (or few) individuals could find a sexual population, whereas two or more would be required if the colonizers were self-incompatible (SI). Howe...

This poster is related with the identification and evaluation of endemic, native and introduced vascular flora of Lombo Gordo. Therefore we tried to update the knowlwdge of the distribution of the variety of species found. The Lombo Gordo is a coastal area of ecological interest due to the diversity of biotopes encountered and the possibility of ob...