Speaking “nature”: Methods for measuring the impact of environmental pollution on ecosystems 2021 ONLINE; Done

Note: This course will be given remotely (online)

Environmental Pollution refers to the contamination of any component of an ecosystem causing adverse effects in its functioning. A widespread phenomenon in the Anthropocene, it impacts biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and affects the ability of ecosystems to provide ecosystem services to humans. Besides, pollution also causes direct adverse effects on human health. Although the tools to measure pollutants concentration are increasingly well established, the tools available to measure the impacts of pollution on Ecosystems are far less known.

This course will train students on the use of tools to measure the impact of environmental pollution on ecosystems. These will include the use of ecological indicators based on biodiversity, physic and chemical measures and modelling, to measure the impact of atmospheric, water and soil pollution.  Examples will be provided for natural, semi-natural and human-built ecosystems.

The course will be organized in lectures, lab experiences and computer analysis.

This course can have a recognition of 6 ECTs for FCUL PhD students enrolling in it as part of their first doctoral year. For FCUL PhD students only requiring 5 ECTs recognized in their specific PhD programs the excursion is not mandatory and the certificate will be on ‘Methods for measuring the impact of environmental pollution on ecosystems’.

Final program

	12 July   Overview I	13 July   Urban   ecosystems	14 July   Aquatic ecosystems	15 July   Agroecosystems/Industrial ecosystems	16 July   Forest   ecosystems
09:00-09:45	Introduction, and presentations   Silvana Munzi, Margarida Matos	Urban birds   Petra Bauerová	Monitoring water pollution using aquatic bryophytes Helena Serrano	Soil functional indicators   Cristina Cruz	Snail and needles   Firas Baroudi
09:45-10:30	Global Change & Anthropocene   Cristina Branquinho	Magnetic properties   Aldo Winkler	Ecotoxicological test   Bernardo Duarte	Effects of pollution on pollinators   Juan Cancela	Lichens in montado   Bernardo Rocha
10:30-10:45	Coffee-break	Coffee-break	Coffee-break	Coffee-break	Coffee-break
10:45-11:30	Introduction to Ecological indicators   Cristina Branquinho	Effects of hydrothermal emissions   Patrícia Garcia	Water quality assessment (fishes)   Filomena Magalhães	Insects   Clara Wendt	Dendrochemistry   Edoardo Alterio, Tommaso Sitzia
11:30-12:15	Lichen functional diversity   Silvana Munzi	Citizen Science   Roeland Samson	Water quality assessment (plankton/algae) Ana Brito	Effects/risk assessment of pesticide   Paulo Sousa	Vegetation   Lina Fusaro
12:15-13:00	Isotopes & pollution sources   Cristina Máguas	Multi-Taxa   Pedro Pinho	eDNA in ecological assessment   Mathew Seymour	,   Metal accumulation in bats   Joana Alves	Soil solution fluxes   Anna Andreetta
13:00-14:00	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
	Overview II			Large-scale monitoring
14:00-14:45	Human health & biomonitoring   Sofia Augusto	Practical work	Practical work	Management tools Teresa Dias	Presentation of the practical work       Closure
14:45-15:30	Application for management   Domingos Leitão			Determination of nitrogen exceedances   Alexandra Oliveira
15.30-15:45	Coffee-break			Coffee-break
15:45-16:30	Environmental justice assessment   Tania Contardo			Satellite observations   Jasdeep Anand
16:30-17:15	Introduction to the practical work   Silvana Munzi   Pedro Pinho	Discussion about the practical work - the area & the problem	Discussion about the practical work - the general approach	Avian apex predators   Alexander Badry

Aldo Winkler, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia “Magnetic biomonitoring of airborne particulate matter using tree leaves and lichens: principles and applications”

Alexander Badry, Department Wildlife Diseases, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research “Towards harmonisation of chemical monitoring using avian apex predators: Identification of key species for pan-European biomonitoring”

Alexandra Oliveira, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “Determination of exceedances using empirical CLs and user-friendly dashboard”

Ana Brito, MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Universidade de Lisboa “Environmental quality assessment of marine ecosystems”

Anna Andreetta, Department of Earth Science, University of Florence "Monitoring nitrogen deposition and leaching in European forests"

Bernardo Duarte, MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Universidade de Lisboa “Ecotoxicology tests in impact assessment: from biomarkers to indexes development”

Bernardo Rocha, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “The amazing world of lichens - tools to measure the impacts of pollutants on ecosystems”

Clara Frasconi Wendt, Research Centre Laimburg “Insects as indicators of environmental pollution: insights at different spatial scales”

Cristina Branquinho, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “Global change & anthropocene” and “Introduction to ecological indicators“

Cristina Cruz, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “Soil health indicators”

Cristina Máguas, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “Tracing and mapping pollution sources using pollutants' isotope fingerprint”

Domingos Leitão, Divisão de Gestão Ambiental, Departamento de Ambiente e Equipamento, Câmara Municipal de Oeiras “Monitoring of urban ecosystems – the example of Oeiras Municipality”

Edoardo Alterio and Tommaso Sitzia, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, Università degli Studi di Padova “Dendrochemistry: the power of tree rings to archive pollution events”

Filomena Magalhães, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “Water quality assessment using fishes”

Firas Baroudi, Institute of Chemistry and Processes for Energy, Environment and Health ICPEES, UMR 7515 Group of Physical Chemistry of the Atmosphere, University of Strasbourg “The use of snails and conifers as environmental biomonitors for the study of temporal air pollution variation in the atmosphere”

Helena Cristina Serrano, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “Monitoring water pollution using aquatic bryophytes”

Jasdeep Singh Anand, University of Leicester “Estimating ozone-induced vegetation damage from space using satellite data”

Joana Alves, Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People & the Planet, UNESCO CHAIR in Biodiversity Safeguard for Sustainable Development, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra “Bioaccumulation of metals in bats”

Juan Pablo Cancela, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa; University of the Azores “Effects of (soil/air) pollution on pollinators”

Lina Fusaro, National Research Council, Institute of BioEconomy “Plants in a challenging world: monitoring the abiotic stress in natural and urban ecosystems”

Mathew Seymour, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences “Executing multi-taxa eDNA ecological assessment via traditional metrics and interactive networks”

Patrícia Garcia, cE3c-ABG, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, and Azorean Biodiversity Group, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of the Azores “Sleeping volcanoes, awaking health issues: the hazardous effects of hydrothermal emissions on the human respiratory system”

Paulo Sousa, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra “Effects and risk assessment of pesticide in soil”

Pedro Pinho, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “Sampling urban biodiversity under the influence of multiple environmental factors: a multitaxa approach”

Petra Bauerová, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Division of Air Quality, Tušimice Observatory “Trace metal levels in blood and feathers of urban birds and their relationship to the individual's health and condition”

Roeland Samson, Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp “Citizens as strong partners in urban air quality monitoring”

Silvana Munzi, Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia; Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa “Lichen functional diversity”

Sofia Augusto, Institute of Public Health (ISPUP-EPIUnit), University of Porto “Human health & biomonitoring”

Tania Contardo, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena “Biomonitoring of air pollution and environmental justice”

Teresa Dias, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa “Setting environmental management tools using different ecosystem components”

Students fees

Free for 1st year PhD students in  Doctoral programmes  at FCUL (e.g. Biologia), Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution (BIODIV UL; UP) and Biology and Ecology of Global Changes (BEAG UL, UA) when the course counts credits for their formation, in which case the delivery of a final report done after the course is mandatory; the course is also free for more advanced PhD students of the BIODIV programme (ULisboa or UPorto); 30 € for more advanced PhD students of cE3c of other programmes; 60 € for PhD students of the PEERS network (CFE); 105 € for FCUL Master students and unemployed; 160 € for BTI, BI and other PhD students; 230 € for Professional and postdocs.

When the maximum number of students is reached 8 vacancies will be available for non-paying 1st year PhD students mentioned above, being, by order of preference: 1) cE3c students; 2) BIODIV students (not from cE3c); 3) FCUL students (not from cE3c); 4) BEAG students (not from FCUL).