A cigarrinha-das-raízes-cavernícola da Ilha do Pico Cixius azopicavus Hoch, 1991

Atualmente são conhecidas cerca de 270 cavidades vulcânicas nos Açores, as quais representam um património natural único, quer pela sua riqueza geológica, quer pela grande diversidade de seres vivos que albergam. Com o intuito de dar a conhecer um pouco melhor os organismos dos habitats subterrâneos dos Açores, iniciou- se na edição de 2018 do Pingo de Lava uma coleção de fichas com informação sucinta sobre taxonomia, biologia, distribuição geográfica, espécies aparentadas, estado de conservação e algumas curiosidades de várias das espécies que ocorrem nestes locais. Para dar continuidade a estas “Fichas dos habitantes dos ecossistemas subterrâneos dos Açores” escolhemos a espécie Cixius azopicavus Hoch, 1991 uma cigarrinha-das-raízes-cavernícola que só existe na ilha do Pico.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nest predation of Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis (Aves, Procellariiformes) by introduced mammals on Terceira Island, Azores

ABSTRACT: The Azores holds the largest population of Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis (Cory, 1881) (Aves, Procellariiformes) in the world. Apart from a few mammal-free islets, the bulk of the population breeds in coastal areas on the main human-inhabited islands, where several non-native predators have been introduced. Throughout the entire year of the 2019 breeding season, we used motion-triggered cameras and regularly visited three colonies of Cory's shearwater to identify nest predators and the factors affecting nest predation. A total of 292,624 photos were obtained, of which 97.7% were of Cory’s shearwaters, 1.7% of non-target species (e.g. other birds, rabbits) and 0.52% of potential predators. Of the monitored nests, 25.7% were predated (n = 9), mainly by black rats (n = 8), but also by cats (n = 1). The relative abundance of black rats in the nests was the main factor explaining nest mortality. This variable was significantly and negatively related with the daily survival rate of Cory’s shearwater nestlings. Identification of the main nest predators is crucial for the management and conservation of native bird populations, particularly on oceanic islands, which harbour an important number of threatened and endemic species.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ask a Scientist : using place-based mobile learning to promote adolescents’ interest in nature

XVI Congresso de Psicologia Ambiental, Faro, Universidade do Algarve, 11 a 14 de Abril de 2022.Questioning can be an important instrument to promote students' interest in nature. In this study, based on questions from local adolescents about nature, we designed mobile learning materials focused on local nature-rich environments in the form of podcast episodes and tested them, in a quasi-experimental design, with a new group of adolescents to assess their efficacy in promoting participants’ curiosity about nature. Contributions of this study include insights for future research on technological nature and adolescents' interaction with nature and educational developments related to place-based learning for nature conservation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nature exposure scale : Psychometric properties, reliability and validity evidence from Azores (Portugal)

XVI Congresso de Psicologia Ambiental, Faro, Universidade do Algarve, 11 a 14 de Abril de 2022.Although exposure to nature has asserted its impact on health and well-being in numerous studies, the way in which it is assessed is still problematic and there are no validated measures for Portuguese-speaking countries. Hence, in this study, we carried out a psychometric analysis of the Nature Exposure Scale (NES), a self-report instrument with four Likert items, from its administration to a convenience sample of 579 adults residing in the Azores (Portugal). Overall, the results of the NES scale show good reliability and adequate divergent and convergent validity. But the understanding of its latent structure must be deepened.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Field Guide audio series: mobile learning using place-based and inquiry-led approaches to promote adolescents’ interest in nature

ABSTRACT: Facilitating the exploration of adolescents’ questions regarding nature is vital. Research suggests that their questions are important as they can reveal their interests in particular subjects and further guide their learning process. We designed a quasi-experimental study for 68 adolescents in an outdoor and indoor setting to assess the efficacy of the audio-learning materials in promoting their interest in learning more about nature. Although we did not find differences between the two settings, results show that the audio-learning materials impacted questioning by guiding participants’ focus on specific topics and promoting perceived learning. Participants also reported high satisfaction with the audio-learning materials and willingness to hear more and/or recommend them to others. As a result, we discuss the motivational role of audio-learning materials in promoting adolescents’ exploration of nature and interest in learning about nature-rich environments. We believe our study has educational and design-related implications. It problematizes how audio-learning materials may bring adolescents closer to nature and tests the potential of mobile technology as a medium. Our study also builds on existing educational strategies by further adding the importance of valuing the concept of place and its ecological and social dimensions to enhance adolescents’ contact with and interest in nature.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Guia de atividades pedagógicas : À (re)descoberta da natureza

Num contexto escolar em que os alunos estão menos vezes do que o desejável em contacto direto com ambientes naturais, pretende-se, no âmbito do projeto de investigação Guia de Campo, disponibilizar a professores, pais e jovens um conjunto de atividades de exploração da natureza idealizadas de modo a diversificar os tipos de inteligência, de experiências e de elementos naturais abrangidos. De acordo com a abordagem da aprendizagem situada, que sublinha a relevância da relação entre a aprendizagem e a situação física e social em que ocorre, estas atividades foram desenvolvidas e testadas por jovens escuteiros de diferentes idades no Trilho dos Mistérios Negros, no Parque Natural da Ilha Terceira (Açores, Portugal). A seleção de atividades apresentadas neste guia como materiais de educação ambiental multidisciplinares, foi realizada tendo em conta a identificação de contextos específicos que facilitassem as aprendizagens, promovendo a curiosidade e conhecimento das crianças e jovens sobre os ambientes naturais do local onde vivem. Visava-se aumentar a sua exposição e conexão à natureza e expandir as suas possibilidades de relação (affordances) com ela. Crê-se estar a contribuir, deste modo, para o desenvolvimento da consciência ambiental e de competências cognitivas e metacognitivas, sociais, emocionais e psicomotoras. Para cada atividade encontram-se identificados os anos escolares e as áreas curriculares em que se enquadram de forma mais imediata. É também apresentada informação relativa às áreas de competências consideradas no Perfil dos Alunos à Saída da Escolaridade Obrigatória, bem como aos tipos de inteligência mais diretamente implicados, de acordo com a teoria das inteligências múltiplas.FINANCIAMENTO: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), através do projeto de investigação Guia de Campo (PTDC/CED-EDG/31182/2017) e Governo Regional dos Açores através do projeto PRO-SCIENTIA - Programa de incentivos do Sistema Científico e Tecnológico dos Açores (SCTA), Concurso M3.3.c/ PUBLICAÇÕES (M3.3.C/Edições/076/2022).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores: IV - The spiders of Terceira and Pico Islands (2019-2021) and general diversity patterns after ten years of sampling

BACKGROUND: Long-term studies are key to understand the drivers of biodiversity erosion, such as land-use change and habitat degradation, climate change, invasive species or pollution. The long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores) started in 2012 and focuses on arthropod monitoring, using SLAM (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) traps, aiming to understand the impact of the drivers of biodiversity erosion on Azorean native forests (Azores, Portugal). This is the fourth contribution including SLAM project data and the second focused on the spider fauna (Arachnida, Araneae) of native forests on two islands (Pico and Terceira). In this contribution, we describe data collected between 2019 and 2021 and we analyse them together with a previously published database that covered the 2012-2019 period, in order to describe changes in species abundance patterns over the last ten years. NEW INFORMATION: We present abundance data of Azorean spider species for the 2019-2021 period in two Azorean Islands (Terceira and Pico). We also present analyses of species distribution and abundance of the whole sampling period. In the period of 2019-2021, we collected a total of 5110 spider specimens, of which 2449 (48%) were adults. Most juveniles, with the exception of some exotic Erigoninae, were also included in the data presented in this paper, since the low diversity of spiders in the Azores allows a relatively precise species-level identification of this life-stage. We recorded a total of 45 species, belonging to 39 genera and 16 families. The ten most abundant species were composed mostly of endemic or native non-endemic species and only two exotic species (Tenuiphantes tenuis (Blackwall, 1852) and Dysdera crocata C. L. Koch, 1838). They included 4308 individuals (84%) of all sampled specimens and were the dominant species in Azorean native forests. The family Linyphiidae was the richest and most abundant taxon, with 15 (33%) species and 2630 (51%) specimens. We report Cheiracanthium mildei L. Koch, 1864, a non-native species, from Pico Island for the first time. We found no new species records on Terceira Island. This publication contributes to increasing the baseline information for future long-term comparisons of the spiders on the studied sites and the knowledge of the arachnofauna of the native forests of Terceira and Pico, in terms of species abundance, distribution and diversity across seasons for a 10 years period.AMCS is supported by the Ramón y Cajal program (RYC2020-029407-I), financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. IRA and MB were supported by FCT - DL57/2016/CP1375/CT0004 and /CT0001, respectively. PAVB and RG performed reserach within the project -Portal da Biodiversidade dos Açores (2022-2023) - PO Azores Project - M1.1.A/INFRAEST CIENT/001/2022. Data curation and Open Access of this manuscript was supported by the project MACRISK-Trait-based prediction of extinction risk and invasiveness for Northern Macaronesian arthropods (FCT-PTDC/BIA-CBI/0625/2021).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Festa do Bioblitz Açores: a diversidade dos artrópodes do Jardim Duque da Terceira.

Como detalhamos em um outro artigo deste mesmo volume do Pingo de Lava, o BioBlitz Açores 2023 foi um sucesso educativo, lúdico e científico, com o registo de 188 espécies de líquenes, plantas, aves e artrópodes (Amorim et al., 2023). Como é habitual neste tipo de atividades de ciência cidadã ou participativa, os artrópodes foram o grupo melhor representado (86 espécies). Devido aos seus valores de biodiversidade, à sua importância ecológica e ao desconhecimento que o público tem dos artrópodes, neste artigo faz-se uma descrição mais detalhada deste grupo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forests of Azores: V - New records of terrestrial arthropods after ten years of SLAM sampling

BACKGROUND: A long-term study monitoring arthropods (Arthropoda) is being conducted since 2012 in the forests of Azorean Islands. Named "SLAM - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores", this project aims to understand the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers in the distribution, abundance and diversity of Azorean arthropods. The current dataset represents arthropods that have been recorded using a total of 42 passive SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) deployed in native, mixed and exotic forest fragments in seven Azorean Islands (Flores, Faial, Pico, Graciosa, Terceira, São Miguel and Santa Maria). This manuscript is the fifth data-paper contribution, based on data from this long-term monitoring project. NEW INFORMATION: We targeted taxa for species identification belonging to Arachnida (excluding Acari), Chilopoda, Diplopoda, Hexapoda (excluding Collembola, Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera (but including only Formicidae)). Specimens were sampled over seven Azorean Islands during the 2012-2021 period. Spiders (Araneae) data from Pico and Terceira Islands are not included since they have been already published elsewhere (Costa and Borges 2021, Lhoumeau et al. 2022). We collected a total of 176007 specimens, of which 168565 (95.7%) were identified to the species or subspecies level. For Araneae and some Hemiptera species, juveniles are also included in this paper, since the low diversity in the Azores allows a relatively precise species-level identification of this life-stage. We recorded a total of 316 named species and subspecies, belonging to 25 orders, 106 families and 260 genera. The ten most abundant species were mostly endemic or native non-endemic (one Opiliones, one Archaeognatha and seven Hemiptera) and only one exotic species, the Julida Ommatoiulus moreleti (Lucas, 1860). These ten species represent 107330 individuals (60%) of all sampled specimens and can be considered as the dominant species in the Azorean native forests for the target studied taxa. The Hemiptera were the most abundant taxa, with 90127 (50.4%) specimens. The Coleoptera were the most diverse with 30 (28.6%) families. We registered 72 new records for many of the islands (two for Flores, eight for Faial, 24 for Graciosa, 23 for Pico, eight for Terceira, three for São Miguel and four for Santa Maria). These records represent 58 species. None of them is new to the Azores Archipelago. Most of the new records are introduced species, all still with low abundance on the studied islands. This publication contributes to increasing the baseline information for future long-term comparisons of the arthropods of the studied sites and the knowledge of the arthropod fauna of the native forests of the Azores, in terms of species abundance, distribution and diversity throughout seasons and years.AMCS is supported by the Ramón y Cajal program (RYC2020-029407-I), financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. IRA and MB were funded by Portuguese funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Norma Transitória – DL 57/2016/CP1375/CT0003 and DL 57/2016/CP1375/CT0001, respectively. Several projects supported the acquisition of traps during the last ten years, namely: EUFCT-NETBIOME –ISLANDBIODIV grant 0003/2011 (between 2012 and 2015); Portuguese National Funds, through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, within the project UID/BIA/00329/2013-2020; Direcção Regional do Ambiente - PRIBES (LIFE17 IPE/PT/ 000010) (2019); Direcção Regional do Ambiente – LIFE-BETTLES (LIFE18 NAT_PT_000864) (2020); AZORESBIOPORTAL – PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145- FEDER-000072) (2019); (FCT) - MACRISK-Trait-based prediction of extinction risk and invasiveness for Northern Macaronesian arthropods (FCT-PTDC/BIA-CBI/0625/2021) (2021-2022). Data curation and open Access of this manuscript were supported by the project MACRISK-Trait-based prediction of extinction risk and invasiveness for Northern Macaronesian arthropods (FCT-PTDC/BIA-CBI/0625/2021).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Building a Portuguese Coalition for Biodiversity Genomics

The diverse physiography of the Portuguese land and marine territory, spanning from continental Europe to the Atlantic archipelagos, has made it an important repository of biodiversity throughout the Pleistocene glacial cycles, leading to a remarkable diversity of species and ecosystems. This rich biodiversity is under threat from anthropogenic drivers, such as climate change, invasive species, land use changes, overexploitation or pathogen (re)emergence. The inventory, characterization and study of biodiversity at inter- and intra-specific levels using genomics is crucial to promote its preservation and recovery by informing biodiversity conservation policies, management measures and research. The participation of researchers from Portuguese institutions in the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) initiative, and its pilot effort to generate reference genomes for European biodiversity, has reinforced the establishment of Biogenome Portugal. This nascent institutional network will connect the national community of researchers in genomics. Here, we describe the Portuguese contribution to ERGA’s pilot effort, which will generate high-quality reference genomes of six species from Portugal that are endemic, iconic and/or endangered, and include plants, insects and vertebrates (fish, birds and mammals) from mainland Portugal or the Azores islands. In addition, we outline the objectives of Biogenome Portugal, which aims to (i) promote scientific collaboration, (ii) contribute to advanced training, (iii) stimulate the participation of institutions and researchers based in Portugal in international biodiversity genomics initiatives, and (iv) contribute to the transfer of knowledge to stakeholders and engaging the public to preserve biodiversity. This initiative will strengthen biodiversity genomics research in Portugal and fuel the genomic inventory of Portuguese eukaryotic species. Such efforts will be critical to the conservation of the country’s rich biodiversity and will contribute to ERGA’s goal of generating reference genomes for European species.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio