Priscila Lopes

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte | IIP · Departament of Ecology

The blue economy is being promoted as capable of achieving sustainability and prosperity, fair use of the ocean and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ensuring a more equitable distribution of goods and services provided by the ocean represents a major challenge. There is overwhelming evidence that current access to ocean benefits and res...

The ocean is important for everyone—it produces oxygen and food, stores carbon and heat, offers space for economic activities and recreation, and continues to inspire and support culture and well-being. Globally, the value of key ocean assets has been estimated at US$24 trillion and the value of derived services at between $1.5 trillion and $6 tril...

Scientists have warned for several years that food systems have become major drivers of environmental degradation, malnutrition, and food insecurity. In this paper, we present arguments from specialists that suggest that in the transition to more sustainable food systems, biodiversity and food security can be mutually supportive rather than conflic...

Scientists have warned for several years that food systems have become major drivers of environmental degradation, malnutrition, and food insecurity. In this paper, we present arguments from specialists that suggest that in the transition to more sustainable food systems, biodiversity and food security can be mutually supportive rather than conflic...

Despite its relevance, the economic contribution of small-scale fisheries to poverty alleviation is still poorly understood. This study investigates why some fishers perform economically better in fisheries than others under similar conditions and whether these variations in performance were due to individual adaptive strategies related to fishing...

Diverse and inclusive marine research is paramount to addressing ocean sustainability challenges in the 21st century, as envisioned by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Despite increasing efforts to diversify ocean science, women continue to face barriers at various stages of their career, which inhibits their progression...

The level of habitat availability influences genetic divergence among populations and the genetic diversity within populations. In the marine environment, near-shore species are among the most sensitive to habitat changes. Knowledge of how historical environmental change affected habitat availability and genetic variation can be applied to the deve...

Despite the marine environment being typified by a lack of obvious barriers to dispersal, levels of genetic divergence can arise in marine organisms from historical changes in habitat availability, current oceanographic regimes and anthropogenic factors. Here we describe the genetic structure of the Gray Parrotfish, Sparisoma axillare, and identify...

Fishers’ Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) has multidimensional contributions to improve fisheries and aquatic ecosystems science, ranging from algae to whales and including management, conservation, ecology, and impact assessment. The challenges are to sustain this knowledge, recognize its value, and to include ILK holders in resource managemen...

The dusky grouper Epinephelus marginatus is one of the Serranidae (Epinephelinae) listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Data regarding population structure and genetic variation levels can be analysed and incorporated into fishery science to increase the chances of succ...

The ocean economy has the potential to improve human wellbeing. Yet, in practice, its rapid acceleration is often producing few benefits and substantial social harms for rural and resource dependent coastal communities. We urge a global transformation to a socially sustainable and equitable blue economy that benefits coastal populations.

Evidence-informed decision-making is in increasing demand given growing pressures on marine environments. A way to facilitate this is by knowledge exchange among marine scientists and decision-makers. While many barriers are reported in the literature, there are also examples whereby research has successfully informed marine decision-making (i.e.,...

Interdisciplinary research is paramount to addressing ocean sustainability challenges in the 21st century. However, women leaders have been underrepresented in interdisciplinary marine research, and there is little guidance on how to achieve the conditions that will lead to an increased proportion of women scientists in positions of leadership. Her...

The extensive oil spill (> 2,900 km) that occurred in the southwestern Atlantic (2019/2020) increased the vulnerability of the Brazilian coast, affecting marine and coastal protected areas (MPAs). In addition to supporting conservation, MPAs are sustainably used by local populations to help maintain ocean-dependent livelihoods. In this sense, we ai...

Small-scale fisheries are important for livelihoods, food security, jobs and income worldwide. However, they face major challenges, including the increasing effects of climate change that pose serious risks to coastal ecosystems and fishing communities. Although scientific research on climate change impacts has increased in recent years, few studie...

Mangrove habitats provide nursery, shelter, and feeding sites for many economically relevant fish, and invertebrates, such as crabs. Given the highly artisanal character and the patchy spatial distribution of small-scale fishing in mangroves, there is often little data available to inform management, potentially threatening the sustainability of th...

Fishery statistics are mainly made by recording the popular �sh names, which is later translated into scientific identification. However, these names often either refer to a species group and/or vary along their distribution, increasing identi�fication uncertainty. Species that have cultural value for traditional communities are known as culturally...

Industrial and small-scale tuna fisheries in Mozambique may compete over the same resources, which has potential socio-ecological impacts. The two types of fisheries were investigated by characterising their catch trends, types of interactions, number of people they employ and revenues. Commercial landings, logbook data and all previously establish...

Reefs are highly diverse ecosystems threatened by anthropogenic actions that change their structure and dynamics. Many of these changes have been witnessed by different reef users who hold specific knowledge about the reefscape according to their experiences and uses. We aimed to understand whether fishers, divers, and reef scientists have differen...

Small-scale fishers in the developing world have been particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic given that they belong to one of the most socioeconomically vulnerable groups. In Brazil, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic, it was expected early on that the economy and wellbeing of fishers would be negatively impacted, yet fisher...

Significance Sustainable-use protected areas (PAs) have contributed to tropical biodiversity conservation by deterring deforestation in multiple countries, yet their social and economic benefits to local stakeholders remain poorly understood. Amazonia hosts the largest tropical PA system on Earth, which is intended to safeguard its rich biological...

Assessment of cultural ecosystem services (CES) and the negative impacts humans can have on them can provide essential information toward conservation and management strategies. Globally, tourism and recreational CES are among the most relevant economic and social activities, with ecotourism in particular growing rapidly in places with high cultura...

Landing data are the most basic information used to manage fisheries, although they are often unavailable or incomplete. The objective of this work was to reconstruct the national database of marine commercial landings for the Brazilian industrial and artisanal fisheries, from 1950 to 2015. Total landings increased strongly from 1950 to mid-1980s a...

In 2019, an oil spill in Brazil, of unknown origin, severely impacted coastal environs with the worst environmental disaster ever recorded in any tropical coastal region globally severely damaging South Pirangi Reef area in the state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN). Here we discuss acute and chronic impacts including chemical contamination and economic...

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is a relatively new approach to ocean management and has been widely implemented worldwide. Ideally, MSP should be established as a public process that analyzes and distributes human activities across space and time to achieve ecological, economic and social goals, which historically have been accomplished exclusively...

Amazonian livelihoods are largely dependent on rivers, with local protein consumption mainly relying on several species of fish. The UJER (Upper Juruá Extractive Reserve - Reserva Extrativista do Alto Juruá) is located in the state of Acre, bordering Peru and several indigenous areas. Here we summarize the data we collected in 1993/1994 on the popu...

Marine conservation transdisciplinary researchers often get to the field with a previously designed question, often formulated outside the actual geographical, social, cultural and ecological setting in which the research projects are supposed to be anchored. Involving people on the ground in the initial phase of formulating the questions and setti...

Marine conservation transdisciplinary researchers often get to the field with a previously designed question, often formulated outside the actual geographical, social, cultural and ecological setting in which the research projects are supposed to be anchored. Involving people on the ground in the initial phase of formulating the questions and setti...

Many global management and conservation initiatives fail to prevent overfishing either because they do not plan for local engagement, surveillance, and enforcement, and/or because they fail to include alternatives for short-term losses. Thus, these initiatives do not gain support among fishers. In this study, we interviewed fishers to investigate t...

• Governance of natural resources in the Amazon has changed over time, especially when it comes to participatory regimes. Yet these regimes have rarely focused on the conservation of aquatic systems or have failed to fully deliver social justice. • Participatory regimes in the Amazon basin that rely on the provision of freshwater ecosystem services...

Conservation biology is designed to identify pressing environmental problems and to solve them. This review evaluates the relative effort of conservation biology in problem-based and solution-based research, and tests whether or not this has changed in the past decades for five major drivers of biodiversity loss, i.e. habitat loss and fragmentation...

Tracking fish consumption could provide additional information on changes to fish stocks, one of the planet’s main protein sources. We used data on seafood consumption in fishing villages in Brazil over time to test for changes in: species richness, diversity, and composition, fish size and trophic levels, consumption of endangered species, and fun...

In August 2019, a major oil spill hit nine Brazilian coastal states, affecting marine ecosystems and fishing communities. In this study, we assess the immediate social and economic impacts of this oil spill on fishing communities of the northeast coast. We conducted semi-structured interviews and focal meetings with 381 fishers and shellfish gather...

The list of threatened species (Red List), established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), aims to provide global assessments on the extinction risk of species. However, protecting vulnerable populations requires establishing threat criteria at sub-global scales, e.g., national Red Lists. In data-poor contexts, typical of...

Octopus insularis, despite being widely fished from Brazil to Mexico, has only recently been described as a different species from the sympatric Octopus vulgaris complex in the tropical Atlantic, where its occurrence is determined by different environmental factors. Using a 10‐year time series from Brazil, we modeled how topographic aspects and oce...

Species occurrence and distribution have already been directly affected by climate change, a scenario that is likely to be accentuated as the temperature rise is expected to exceed 2 • C by 2100. Owing to climate change, organisms are forced to migrate or adapt to new climatic conditions, and if they fail to do so, they are at risk of declining and...

As mulheres pescadoras lidam historicamente com a falta de reconhecimento de suas atividades, o que tem implicações socioeconômicas (e.g., falta de remuneração por seu trabalho) e de saúde (e.g.: falta de reconhecimento de suas doenças trabalhistas). Através de uma revisão da literatura, aqui avaliamos eventuais mudanças neste cenário para as pesca...

Apresente publicação apresenta informações técnicas e de divulgação científica sobre as espécies de peixes do Baixo Rio Tapajós, Estado do Pará, Amazônia brasileira. A obra inclui ainda identificação taxonômica e nomenclatura popular, ilustrações, além de dados referentes à pesca e ecologia dos peixes. O objetivo principal desta obra consiste em ap...

The High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) is a unique initiative by 14 world leaders who are building momentum for a sustainable ocean economy in which effective protection, sustainable production and equitable prosperity go hand in hand. By enhancing humanity's relationship with the ocean, bridging ocean health and wealth,...

p>As mulheres pescadoras lidam historicamente com a falta de reconhecimento de suas atividades, o que tem implicações socioeconômicas (e.g., falta de remuneração por seu trabalho) e de saúde (e.g.: falta de reconhecimento de suas doenças trabalhistas). Através de uma revisão da literatura, aqui avaliamos eventuais mudanças neste cenário para as pes...

Social-ecological systems (SESs), such as fishing communities, are human and biophysical subsystems that are intrinsically connected to one another and strongly depend on natural resources. That is why these human groups are usually the first to feel the effects of policies concerning fisheries and ocean governance and the most affected by them. Th...

The ocean is important for everyone—it produces oxygen and food, stores carbon and heat, offers space for economic activities and recreation, and continues to inspire and support culture and well-being. Globally, the value of key ocean assets has been estimated at US$24 trillion and the value of derived services at between $1.5 trillion and $6 tril...

This paper examines the distribution of the goods and services provided by the ocean, existing inequities and the resulting impacts on the environment, human health, and income distribution now and in the future. The paper outlines the tensions and trade-offs, and presents recommendations for addressing some of the underlying and systemic features...

Small-scale fisheries are an important, yet neglected, millenarian activity that has been undergoing significant changes that threaten its future. Understanding how this activity is spatially distributed and the factors that drive its use of the marine space over time can shed some light on how fishing efforts and their impacts have moved over diff...

Co‐management has been advocated as an effective tool to achieve natural resource conservation worldwide. Yet, the potential of co‐management arrangements can fail to be realized when there is insufficient local engagement. In this perspective paper, we argue that co‐management schemes focusing on culturally important species (CIS) can help overcom...

A biodiversidade aquática e a elevada produtividade pesqueira da Bacia Amazônica se devem principalmente à dinâmica anual dos pulsos de inundação e às extensas áreas alagáveis. Alguns dos principais impactos da construção de barragens para geração de hidroeletricidade incidem precisamente nesta dinâmica hidrológica. A construção da Usina Hidrelétri...

Background: Groupers are a vulnerable but economically important group of fish, especially for small-scale fisheries. We investigated catches and local ecological knowledge (LEK) of diet, habitat, and past fishing experiences. Methods: Landings, prices, interviews, and restaurants demand for two species, Epinephelus marginatus (dusky grouper) an...

The loss of biodiversity, including the collapse of fish stocks, affects the vulnerability of social-ecological systems (SESs)and threatens local livelihoods. Incorporating community-centered indicators and SES drivers and exposures of change into coastalmanagement can help anticipate and mitigate human and/or coastal vulnerability. We have propose...

Overfishing is a concerning threat that can lead to the collapse of fish stocks. We assessed the combinations of factors, including biological traits, types of exploitation and responses to sea temperature and salinity changes, that drive species to collapse in the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) tropical and subtropical regions. We applied...

Abstract Small-scale fisheries (SSF) account for more than half the world’s catch and employ more than 90% of people engaged in fisheries. Galicia (NW Spain) has supported important shellfisheries (considered as SSF) throughout history. Currently, Galician shellfisheries involve more than 3 800 direct employments yielding in 2018 9.519 tonnes of bi...

Infographic designed by @McCorkStudios for publication: Kelly, R., Mackay, M., Nash, K.L., Cvitanovic, C., Allison, E.H., Armitage, D., Bonn, A., Cooke, S.J., Frusher, S., Fulton, E.A., Halpern, B.S., Lopes, P.F.M., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Peck, M.A., Pecl, G.T., Stephenson, R.L. & Werner, F. (2019) Ten tips for developing interdisciplinary socio-ec...

The concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) highlights that human wellbeing depends on nature and is a ‘whole system aware’ view. Land-sea systems are examples of complex systems including interfaces that can be perceived as boundaries, overlooking connections of the whole system. We explored the occurrence of several features of scientific knowledge bu...

Interdisciplinary research and collaborations are essential to disentangle complex and wicked global socio-ecological challenges. However, institutional structures and practices to support interdisciplinary research are still developing and a shared understanding on how best to develop effective interdisciplinary researchers (particularly at early...

Amazonian fisheries in Brazil contribute to the food security of over 20 million people who are mostly poor. However, multiple examples suggest that freshwater fish stocks may be under the same overfishing threats observed in marine fisheries, in addition to all the risks imposed by infrastructure development projects. While such threats may push s...

Human populations often make decisions about how to obtain the resources they need using a cost/benefit ratio (see Begossi 1992; Lopes et al.2011; Lopes and Begossi 2011; Soldati and Albuquerque 2012; Alves et al. 2017; Lins Neto and Albuquerque 2018) that can be harmful to conservation efforts even if they have a broad understanding of the environ...

Background: Accessing folk knowledge from small-scale fishers is an affordable and reliable approach to understand the dynamic and diversity of shark species worldwide, especially of those eventually caught. In this context, ethnotaxonomy (folk identification and classification) may represent an alternative to support sharks fisheries management,...

Many developing countries lack information to manage their endangered species, urging the need for affordable and reliable information. We used Bayesian hierarchical spatial models, with oceanographic variables, to predict the distribution range of Epinephelus marginatus, the dusky grouper, for the entire Southwest Atlantic. We ran a model using sc...

The lack of knowledge about the majority of fish species harvested in Amazonian small-scale fisheries, in association with impacts from hydroelectric power plants, may lead to biodiversity loss and a decrease in the protein food supply for riverine Amazonians. This study uses existing datasets on fisheries and riverine developmental projects to inf...

A produção de resíduos sólidos urbanos no Brasil é superior a 71,3 milhões de toneladas/ano, sendo aproximadamente 10,2% sem destinação adequada. Com relação ao percentual de reciclagem, o valor é minúsculo, variando entre 2 a 3%. Mediante ao aumento crescente da produção de resíduos sólidos no país e a baixa reciclagem de alguns tipos de resíduos,...

Identifying vulnerable habitats is necessary to designing and prioritizing efficient marine protected areas (MPAs) to sustain the renewal of living marine resources. However, vulnerable habitats rarely become MPAs due to conflicting interests such as fishing. We propose a spatial framework to help researchers and managers determine optimal conserva...