people

Marina R. Cunha started her academic career at the University of Aveiro in 1986, was appointed Assistant in 1991 and Auxiliary Professor in 2000 (current position) when she obtained a PhD degree in Biology. She is curator of the Biological Research Collection of Marine Invertebrates and researcher of the Marine and Estuarine Ecology group at CESAM in the scientific domains of benthic ecology (analysis and interpretation of community data; biodiversity, community structure and trophic relationships; colonization and succession) and crustacean biology (taxonomy, population dynamics, life history and production). Her early research interests, focused on estuarine and coastal ecosystems, were redirected since 2000 to the study of biodiversity and functioning of bathyal ecosystems. Marina co-authored over 100 SCI papers, contributed to the “Handbook of deep-sea hydrothermal vent fauna”, was Guest Editor of two publications (DSRII137, DH183), and refereed papers in 26 SCI journals in the field of and marine ecology and biology. Marina is/was representative of Universidade de Aveiro in the General Assembly of EUROMARINE (since 2013), Vice-President of the Deep-Sea Biology Society (2013-2015) and member of the board of The Portuguese Society of Oceanography (since 2015)

Ana Hilário’s research is focused on ecology of deep-sea chemosynthetic ecosystems. She is particularly interested in reproductive and larval ecology of invertebrates and ecosystem connectivity. Recently she has also been working on taxonomy and phylogeny of Siboglinid polychaetes. Ana obtained a degree in Aquatic Sciences at ICBAS (U. Porto) in 2001 and a PhD degree in 2005 at NOCS (U. Southampton). She has a vast experience in seafloor sampling methods (including manned submersibles and ROV’s) having participated in 15 deep-sea dedicated research cruises in the last 10 years. Ana co-authored 15 SCI papers and participates in several international and national projects.

Post-Doc fellowships

Ana Aranda da Silva (2006-2014; SFRH/BPD/26272/2005)

Teresa Amaro (2006-2012; SFRH/BPD/21459/2005)

PhD projects

Sofia Ramalho – Tolerance of deep-sea benthic ecosystems to trawling disturbance (concluded in 2017; BD MARES_12_10)

Rui Vieira – Changes in deep-sea benthic communities and fisheries in the European margin: Assessing environmental drivers and anthropogenic impacts (concluded in 2017; SFRH/BD/84030/2012)

Lélia Matos – Temporal distribution of cold-water corals on the North Atlantic through the Late Quaternary: footprint of intermediate water mass circulation (concluded in 2017; SFRH/BD/72149/2010)

Mariana Almeida – Deep-sea suprabenthos across the Mediterranean: the influence of environmental drivers on biodiversity and community structure (concluded in 2017; SFRH/BD/96450/2010)

Sven Laming – Patterns in adaptive developmental biology and symbioses of small-sized deep-sea chemosymbiotic mussels (Bathymodiolinae) ( concluded in 2014; BD MARES)

João Cúrdia – Gorgonians of the South of Portugal: biology, ecology and conservation (concluded in 2012; SFRH/BD/29491/2006)

Joana Matzen – Biodiversity and molecular evolution of crustaceans in deep sea ecosystems of the Portuguese margin (concluded in 2011; SFRH/BD/25568/2005)

Carlos Moura – Shallow and deep-water Hydrozoa (Cnidadria) from Portuguese waters (concluded in 2011; SFRH/BD/31155/2006)

Luciana Génio – Systematics and evolutionary history of mytilids (Bivalvia) from chemosynthetic sites based on shell morphological characters (concluded in 2010; SFRH/BD/23231/2005)

Ricardo Neves – Morphological and Ecological Studies on the Phylum Cycliophora (concluded in 2010; SFRH/BD/23436/2005)

Ascensão Ravara – Revision of the family Nephtyidae (Annelida, Polychaeta) based on morphological and molecular data (concluded in 2010; SFRH/BD/16563/2004)

Clara Rodrigues – Macrofaunal assemblages from mud volcanoes in the Gulf of Cadiz (concluded in 2009; SFRH/BD/17085/2004)

Dulce Subida – Colonization and succession of macrofauna in artificial substrates (concluded in 2008)

MSc projects

Pedro Neves – Estimating captures and discards of the beach seine conducted in Mira (Coimbra) (concluded in 2016)

Rita Monteiro – Genetic structure of mussel populations in NE Atlantic and Mediterranean: connectivity between deep-sea habitats (concluded in 2016)

Cristiana Cunha – The interaction between macrofauna and mud volcanoes in the Gulf of Cadiz (concluded in 2016)

Linda Lopes – Biodiversidade da macrofauna de uma praia estuarina sujeita a impacto de marisqueiro (concluded in 2016)

Inês Louro – Avaliação da biodiversidade e biomassa nas capturas e rejeições da ate xávega operada em Mira - Coimbra (concluded in 2016)

Joana Casais – Macrofaunal biodiversity of bathyal habitats at the Moroccan Carbonate Province (Gulf of Cadiz, NE Atlantic) (concluded in 2014)

Inês Ferreira Guedes – Patterns of colonization in an implanted mammal carcass in the deep-Atlantic Ocean (concluded in 2014)

José Paitio – Vision and behaviour in deep-sea fishes: distribution of neural retinal cells in Myctophidae (concluded in 2014)

Diana Ramos – Taxonomy, distribution and ecology of the order Phyllodocida (Annelida, Polychaeta) in deep-sea habitats of the Iberian margin (concluded in 2014)

Inês Dias – Epifaunal biodiversity of gorgonians from the South of Portugal (concluded in 2012)

Guilherme Leite – Isotopic signatures of Frenulata from cold seeps in the Gulf Cadiz (concluded in 2011)

Fábio Matos – Colonization processes in chemosynthetic ecosystems (concluded in 2010)

Manuela Ramos – Sea anemones (Anthozoa: Actiniaria) fauna of the north Atlantic deep-sea (concluded in 2010)

Mariana Almeida – Macrofauna associated to cold-water corals (concluded in 2009)

Clarisse Ferreira – Crustacean fauna of the Portuguese canyons (concluded in 2009)

Felipe Morsoleto – Biodiversity of cold-water coral reefs in the Gulf of Cadiz (NE Atlantic) (concluded in 2009)

Áurea Tiago – Polychaete assemblages of the Portuguese canyons (concluded in 2008)

Biology graduation projects

2016-2017: Bruna Simões & Bruno Costa

2015-2016: Pedro Seabra, Milene Guerreiro & José Abreu

2013-2014: Bárbara Pitarma & Ana Carolina Cruz

2012-2013: Rúben Garcia & Raquel Martins

2011-2012: Joana Casais

2010-2011: Susan Garcia & Tânia Santos

2009-2010: Filipa Domingues, Vinicius Fonseca & Felipe Morsoleto

2008-2009: Débora Reis & Sónia Valente

2006-2007: Sara Vilar

2005-2006: Alexandra Martins

2003-2004: José Violante

2002-2003: Nelson Peralta, Tiago Santos, Carlos Moura & Maria José Amaral

2001-2002: Eduardo Ferreira & Salomé Menezes

2000-2001: Clara Rodrigues, Ana Margarida Sardo, Sónia Simões & Ana Abrantes

Marine Sciences graduation projects

2013-2014: Vitória Pereira & Glória Santos

2012-2013: Andreia Almeida, Diana Carvalho, Hélio Almeida & Pedro Neves

2010-2011: Diana Ramos

2009-2010: Inês Dias

ERASMUS mobility program

2017: Margarita Ferrando, Jose Zamora & Alvaro Garcia

Luciana Génio obtained a degree in Biology at the University of Aveiro, Portugal in 2005. Her collaboration with LEME started in the course of her PhD study (2006-2010), in which she specialized in the systematics of deep-sea chemosymbiotic mussels. She has continued to work in Leme on biodiversity of deep-sea macrofaunal communities, particularly on gastrapod taxa. Currently, her research interests focus on the ecology of invertebrate larvae and deep-sea ecosystem’s connectivity. Mechanisms of mollusc shell mineralization and incorporation of elements in shells, and other calcified structures, are recurrent themes of her past work.

Clara Rodrigues is a postdoctoral researcher at CESAM & Departamento de Biologia (Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal) and UMR7138 (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France). She is interested in the evolution and ecology of marine invertebrates, especially those that form symbioses. She is currently trying to disclose chemosynthesis in the cold seeps of European margins, studying several chemosymbiotic species. Her principal areas of expertise include symbioses and trophic relationships (using stable isotope analysis). She also specialized in the taxonomy of bivalves and ophiuroids (species level) and polychaetes (family level).

Ascensão Ravara concluded her degree in Biology at the University of Aveiro in 1994, her MSc degree in Sciences of the Coastal Zones in 1997 and her PhD degree in Biology in 2010. She has always been working with benthic communities (taxonomy, community structure), from different habitats (estuaries, coastal lagoons, continental shelf), and a focus on polychaete assemblages. She also does curation work on the Biological Research Collection of Marine Invertebrates of the Biology Department of the University of Aveiro. Her main research interests focus on taxonomical (morphology, molecular analysis) and phylogenetic problems within the polychaetes.

Carolina Costa

Fábio Matos raduated in Biology at the University of Aveiro in 2008 and in 2010 concluded his MSc degree in Ecology, Biodiversity and Ecosystems Management in the same University. Since 2008 he collaborates with LEME as student and research fellow. In 2014 he started his PhD (Doctoral Program in Biology and Ecology of Global Change - UA/CESAM) proposing to study communities and habitats connectivity in submarine canyons using network analysis. His main goal is to develop a fundamental understanding of canyon(s) connectivity with predictive capability and provide scientific evidence to support decision-making in conservation.

Patricia Esquete research interests are benthic invertebrates ecology and taxonomy, with a focus on Peracarids and Pycnogonids. She is particularly interested in biodiversity, zoogeography, and description of new taxa. She graduated in Marine Biology in 2007 (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain), MsC in Oceanography in 2009 (Univ. of Cádiz, Spain) and obtained her PhD in 2012 (Univ. of Vigo, Spain). Currently, she is a postdoc in CESAM, where she studies diversity and ecology of peracarids in methane seeps.