Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2021-11"
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- Intenções sobre turismo inclusivo : construção de instrumento de avaliação para famílias de crianças com PEAPublication . Caldeira, Suzana Nunes; Rego, Isabel Estrela; Silva, Osvaldo Dias Lopes da; Sousa, Áurea; Pacheco, Jéssica; Mota, Pilar; Botelho, TâniaO turismo é uma atividade com relevância social por permitir, a par do repouso e do lazer, a ligação com diferentes culturas, pelo que deverá abranger toda a população, incluindo cidadãos com limitações. A promoção de uma política de turismo orientada neste sentido deve considerar a inclusão social e desenvolver estratégias que garantam a acessibilidade de todos os indivíduos. Em Portugal, embora se tenha verificado o desenvolvimento destas estratégias, os esforços parecem focar-se maioritariamente na pessoa com deficiência física, havendo escassez de medidas desenhadas para pessoas com outras limitações, nomeadamente os viajantes com Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo (PEA). O presente trabalho pretendeu alavancar o estudo da viabilidade da criação de um projeto de turismo inclusivo, desenhado especificamente para famílias com crianças com PEA. Para tal, procedeu-se à construção de um questionário que permitisse avaliar as intenções dos cuidadores de crianças com PEA, com foco nas suas motivações, preocupações e preferências relativamente a viagens de turismo e lazer, tendo como destino alvo a Região Autónoma dos Açores. A construção do questionário teve por base a Teoria do Comportamento Planeado, a qual equaciona comportamento humano como sendo guiado pela interação entre crenças sobre prováveis consequências do comportamento, crenças sobre expetativas normativas dos outros e crenças sobre a presença de fatores que podem facilitar ou impedir o desempenho do comportamento. Neste trabalho dá-se conta do racional subjacente ao processo de construção do questionário.
- Development of the European Ladybirds Smartphone Application : A Tool for Citizen SciencePublication . Skuhrovec, Jiří; Roy, Helen E.; Brown, Peter M. J.; Kazlauskis, Karolis; Inghilesi, Alberto F.; Soares, António O.; Adriaens, Tim; Roy, David B.; Nedvěd, Oldřich; Zach, Peter; Viglášová, Sandra; Kulfan, Ján; Honek, Alois; Martinkova, ZdenkaWildlife observations submitted by volunteers through citizen science initiatives are increasingly used within research and policy. Ladybirds are popular and charismatic insects, with most species being relatively easy to identify from photographs. Therefore, they are considered an appropriate taxonomic group for engaging people through citizen science initiatives to contribute long-term and large-scale datasets for use in many different contexts. Building on the strengths of a mass participation citizen science survey on ladybirds in the United Kingdom, we have developed a mobile application for ladybird recording and identification across Europe. The main aims of the application are to: (1) compile distribution data for ladybird species throughout Europe, and use this to assess changes in distribution over time; (2) connect and engage people in nature and increase awareness about the diversity and ecological importance of ladybirds. In developing the application we first constructed a database including ladybird species from the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal with associated information on relevant morphological features (e.g., size, main color, pronotum pattern) to inform identification. Additionally, the species were assessed on the basis of probability of occurrence within each country which enables users to reduce the number of species to only those with relevance to the location of the recorder. This is amongst the first collaborative citizen science approaches aimed at involving participants across Europe in recording a group of insects. In the near future, we aim to expand the use of the application to all countries in Europe.
- Associations between carabid beetles and fungi in the light of 200 years of published literaturePublication . Pozsgai, Gabor; Ben Fekih, Ibtissem; Kohnen, Markus V.; Amrani, Said; Bérces, Sándor; Fülöp, Dávid; Jaber, Mohammed Y. M.; Meyling, Nicolai Vitt; Ruszkiewicz-Michalska, Malgorzata; Pfliegler, Walter P.; Sánchez-García, Francisco Javier; Zhang, Jie; Rensing, Christopher; Lövei, Gábor L.; You, MinshengDescribing and conserving ecological interactions woven into ecosystems is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. Here, we present a unique dataset compiling the biotic interactions between two ecologically and economically important taxa: ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and fungi. The resulting dataset contains the carabid-fungus associations collected from 392 scientific publications, 129 countries, mostly from the Palearctic region, published over a period of 200 years. With an updated taxonomy to match the currently accepted nomenclature, 3,378 unique associations among 5,564 records were identified between 1,776 carabid and 676 fungal taxa. Ectoparasitic Laboulbeniales were the most frequent fungal group associated with carabids, especially with Trechinae. The proportion of entomopathogens was low. Three different formats of the data have been provided along with an interactive data digest platform for analytical purposes. Our database summarizes the current knowledge on biotic interactions between insects and fungi, while offering a valuable resource to test large-scale hypotheses on those interactions.
- Macaronesia as a Fruitful Arena for Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation BiologyPublication . Florencio, Margarita; Patiño, Jairo; Nogué, Sandra; Traveset, Anna; Borges, Paulo A. V.; Schaefer, Hanno; Amorim, Isabel R.; Arnedo, Miquel A.; Ávila, Sérgio P.; Cardoso, Pedro; Nascimento, Lea; Fernández-Palacios, José María; Gabriel, Sofia I.; Gil, Artur José Freire; Gonçalves, Vitor; Haroun, Ricardo J.; Illera, Juan Carlos; López-Darias, Marta; Martínez, Alejandro; Martins, Gustavo M.; Neto, Ana I.; Nogales, Manuel; Oromí, Pedro; Rando, Juan Carlos; Raposeiro, Pedro M.; Rigal, François; Romeiras, Maria M.; Silva, Luís; Valido, Alfredo; Vanderpoorten, Alain; Vasconcelos, Raquel; Santos, Ana M. C.Research in Macaronesia has led to substantial advances in ecology, evolution and conservation biology. We review the scientific developments achieved in this region, and outline promising research avenues enhancing conservation. Some of these discoveries indicate that the Macaronesian flora and fauna are composed of rather young lineages, not Tertiary relicts, predominantly of European origin. Macaronesia also seems to be an important source region for back-colonisation of continental fringe regions on both sides of the Atlantic. This group of archipelagos (Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands, and Cabo Verde) has been crucial to learn about the particularities of macroecological patterns and interaction networks on islands, providing evidence for the development of the General Dynamic Model of oceanic island biogeography and subsequent updates. However, in addition to exceptionally high richness of endemic species, Macaronesia is also home to a growing number of threatened species, along with invasive alien plants and animals. Several innovative conservation and management actions are in place to protect its biodiversity from these and other drivers of global change. The Macaronesian Islands are a well-suited field of study for island ecology and evolution research, mostly due to its special geological layout with 40 islands grouped within five archipelagos differing in geological age, climate and isolation. A large amount of data is now available for several groups of organisms on and around many of these islands. However, continued efforts should be made toward compiling new information on their biodiversity, to pursue various fruitful research avenues and develop appropriate conservation management tools.
- Using Sentinel-1 GRD SAR data for volcanic eruptions monitoring: the case-study of Fogo Volcano (Cabo Verde) in 2014/2015Publication . Tiengo, Rafaela; Pacheco, José M. R.; Uchôa, Jéssica Garcia; Gil, Artur José FreireThe last eruption in the Fogo Volcano, which began in November 2014, was the first eruptive event captured by the Sentinel-1 (S1) mission. The present work sought to complement previous research and explore the potential of utilizing data from the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) S1 mission to better monitor active volcanic areas. S1 Ground Range Detected (GRD) data was used to analyze the changes that occurred in the area before, during, and after the eruptive event and was able to identify the progress of the lava flow and measure the affected area (3.89 km2 in total). Using the GRD data on Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform demonstrated high potential in terms of response time to monitor and assess eruptive scenarios in near-real-time, which is fundamental to mitigate risks and to better support crisis management.
- Challenges and perspectives on tackling illegal or unsustainable wildlife tradePublication . Fukushima, Caroline S.; Tricorache, Patricia; Toomes, Adam; Stringham, Oliver C.; Rivera-Téllez, Emmanuel; Ripple, William J.; Peters, Gretchen; Orenstein, Ronald I.; Morcatty, Thais Q.; Longhorn, Stuart J.; Lee, Chien; Kumschick, Sabrina; Freitas, Marco Antonio; Duffy, Rosaleen V.; Davies, Alisa; Cheung, Hubert; Cheyne, Susan M.; Bouhuys, Jamie; Barreiros, João P.; Amponsah-Mensah, Kofi; Cardoso, PedroIllegal or unsustainable wildlife trade (IUWT) currently presents one of the most high-profile conservation challenges. There is no “one-size-fits-all” strategy, and a variety of disciplines and actors are needed for any counteractive approach to work effectively. Here, we detail common challenges faced when tackling IUWT, and we describe some available tools and technologies to curb and track IUWT (e.g. bans, quotas, protected areas, certification, captive-breeding and propagation, education and awareness). We discuss gaps to be filled in regulation, enforcement, engagement and knowledge about wildlife trade, and propose practical solutions to regulate and curb IUWT, paving the road for immediate action.
- A unified model of species abundance, genetic diversity, and functional diversity reveals the mechanisms structuring ecological communitiesPublication . Overcast, Isaac; Ruffley, Megan; Rosindell, James; Harmon, Luke; Borges, Paulo A. V.; Emerson, Brent C.; Etienne, Rampal S.; Gillespie, Rosemary G.; Krehenwinkel, Henrik; Mahler, D. Luke; Massol, Francois; Parent, Christine E.; Patiño, Jairo; Peter, Ben; Week, Bob; Wagner, Catherine; Hickerson, Michael J.; Rominger, AndrewBiodiversity accumulates hierarchically by means of ecological and evolutionary processes and feedbacks. Within ecological communities drift, dispersal, speciation, and selection operate simultaneously to shape patterns of biodiversity. Reconciling the relative importance of these is hindered by current models and inference methods, which tend to focus on a subset of processes and their resulting predictions. Here we introduce massive ecoevolutionary synthesis simulations (MESS), a unified mechanistic model of community assembly, rooted in classic island biogeography theory, which makes temporally explicit joint predictions across three biodiversity data axes: (i) species richness and abundances, (ii) population genetic diversities, and (iii) trait variation in a phylogenetic context. Using simulations we demonstrate that each data axis captures information at different timescales, and that integrating these axes enables discriminating among previously unidentifiable community assembly models. MESS is unique in generating predictions of community-scale genetic diversity, and in characterizing joint patterns of genetic diversity, abundance, and trait values. MESS unlocks the full potential for investigation of biodiversity processes using multidimensional community data including a genetic component, such as might be produced by contemporary eDNA or metabarcoding studies. We combine MESS with supervised machine learning to fit the parameters of the model to real data and infer processes underlying how biodiversity accumulates, using communities of tropical trees, arthropods, and gastropods as case studies that span a range of data availability scenarios, and spatial and taxonomic scales.
- Climate change vulnerability of cetaceans in Macaronesia : Insights from a trait-based assessmentPublication . Sousa, Andrielly O.; Alves, François; Arranz, Patricia; Dinis, Ana; Fernandez, Marc; González García, L.; Morales, Manuel B.; Lettrich, Matthew D.; Coelho, R. Encarnação; Costa, H.; Lourenço, T. Capela; Azevedo, José M. N.; Santos, C. FrazãoOver the last decades global warming has caused an increase in ocean temperature, acidification and oxygen loss which has led to changes in nutrient cycling and primary production affecting marine species at multiple trophic levels. While knowledge about the impacts of climate change in cetacean's species is still scarce, practitioners and policymakers need information about the species at risk to guide the implementation of conservation measures. To assess cetacean's vulnerability to climate change in the biogeographic region of Macaronesia, we adapted the Marine Mammal Climate Vulnerability Assessment (MMCVA) method and applied it to 21 species management units using an expert elicitation approach. Results showed that over half (62%) of the units assessed presented Very High (5 units) or High (8 units) vulnerability scores. Very High vulnerability scores were found in archipelago associated units of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), namely in the Canary Islands and Madeira, as well as Risso's dolphins (Grampus griseus) in the Canary Islands. Overall, certainty scores ranged from Very High to Moderate for 67% of units. Over 50% of units showed a high potential for distribution, abundance and phenology changes as a response to climate change. With this study we target current and future information needs of conservation managers in the region, and guide research and monitoring efforts, while contributing to the improvement and validation of trait-based vulnerability approaches under a changing climate.
- Palavras para traduzir uma educação política? : ResenhaPublication . Costa Carvalho, MagdaNão é comum que um livro originariamente publicado em português seja depois traduzido em inglês. Mas conseguir captar a atenção do mundo anglófono, ao ponto de produzir a necessidade de quebrar a barreira da língua, é coisa ainda mais rara quando se trata de uma obra sobre filosofia da educação. Walter Omar Kohan conseguiu essa proeza com o seu mais recente livro, dedicado a Paulo Freire, e por isso pensamos que se justifica esta recensão num dossier que celebra o passado, o presente e o futuro do patrono da educação […].
- Motivations of senior tourists : the case of the Azores Islands, PortugalPublication . Silva, Osvaldo Dias Lopes da; Medeiros, Maria Teresa Pires de; Vieira, Virgilio; Furtado, SheilaSenior tourism is increasingly expanding. This quantitative and exploratory study aims to understand the motivations that drive elderly travellers to visit the Azores. The Senior Tourists Motivation Scale (STMS) was applied to 470 participants. Collected data were submitted to nonparametric tests. The results showed that: i) STMS items’ scores differ according to the type of tourist (national or foreign); ii) scores obtained in the three factors of the STMS differ between the two types of tourists, different age groups and levels of income perception. These findings may contribute in the future to the identification of market niches so that decision-makers can develop activities that suit these tourists’ needs and desires.