relatório actividades de j - DOP/UAç - Universidade dos Açores

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DELASS – Development of Elasmobranch assessments. UE – CFP – Study DELASS-CT99-055 DELASS, Development of Elasmobranch Assessments is an international research project in which 15 European research institutes and 2 sub-contractors participate. The duration of the project is three years (2000 - 2002). The main objective of DELASS is the improvement of the scientific basis for the management of fisheries taking elasmobranches species. By the end of the contract period DELASS should provide assessments of 7 species of North East Atlantic sharks and 2 rays species. National funding CORRAM - Octopod cephalopods: relation of the resources with marine environment. FCT - PRAXIS XXI / 2-2.1-MAR-17071-95 This project aims to obtain basic biological information on commercial cephalopods from Portuguese coast, mainly on common-octopus, that represents the 2nd and 3rd most important species in economic value in the national fisheries. The core of the project, common to all participants, concerns in collecting simultaneously biological data (fisheries, reproduction, growth, feeding) on the common- octopus in different geographic areas from mainland Portugal (Viana do Castelo, Cascais e Tavira), Azores and Madeira, at least during an year, based in monthly samplings. At same time, each of the participants will conduct research in other subjects as experimental fishing, suitability of assessment models to cephalopod resources, population genetics, physiology, eco-toxicology, abundance and distribution studies in relation with environmental factors. In the end of the project it is expected to have biological information that could contribute for a better management of the national cephalopod resources. Trophic ecology and population structure of juvenile, pelagic stage loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the North Atlantic Ocean. FCT - PRAXIS XXI / P-BIA-11310-1998 The project aims at increasing our knowledge on the little known biology of pelagic stage loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). These sea turtles provide a1 st model organism to establish a research group and national and international network capable of studying the ecology and autecology of pelagic open ocean organisms. Research at Madeira and Azores focuses around the evolutionary reasons for the existence of a pelagic life history phase for turtles. Given the unpredictability in space and time of food resources in the open ocean, it is strange that loggerhead sea turtles should use these areas as developmental habitat to cover increased energetic demands for their growth. The intention is to address this question through an "optimal foraging-energetic budget" approach, that will 8
measure food availability in the field given the turtles actual behaviour and compare it to physiological demands. The present proposal is inserted in this long term strategy. Here and as a 1 st step we propose to study in more detail the diet of pelagic sea turtles and determine their trophic status through the analysis of stable isotope ratios of nitrogen and carbon. With this information we will then conduct feeding trials to help understand the digestive and nutritional ecology of these turtles. To start to understand population composition and dynamics in the pelagic environment we propose furthermore to determine its composition in regard to sex and age. Last we pretend to explore the idea of using sea turtles as monitors of anthropogenic contaminants by analysing various pollutants from their tissues. From a methodological point of view all aspects proposed here rely on capture of sea turtles at sea and the extraction from these, in the leastharmful way, of samples to obtain as much information as possible. Ecology and conservation of the temporally segregated populations of the madeiran storm petrel Oceanodroma castro breeding in the Azores. PRAXIS/P/BIA/1319471998 The Madeiran storm petrel is a high pelagic seabird, breeding on remote oceanic islands. It is highly vulnerable to ground predators and populations are thought to have declined in recent times. Through much of its breeding range, the Madeiran storm petrel occurs in two temporally discrete breeding populations, one nesting in the summer months, the other breeding during the winter. Recent work carried out by the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries (Monteiro & Furness 1998) has suggested, on the basis of morphological analysis, that the two temporally segregated forms breeding in the Azores islands may be considered as distinct species, which heightens conservation concern for the species complex. The current project aimed to deepen our understanding of the ecology of both forms and to examine the use of artifical nesting chambers as a conservation measure to increase both the size of the breeding population and the reproductive success of nesting pairs. Nest boxes were specially designed and equipped with electronic balances to remotely record food delivery by adults to the nestlings. Further remote monitoring devices recorded the visits of individual adults to the nests. A total of 149 nest boxes were installed and over the course of three breeding seasons (summer 2000, winter 2000/2001 and summer 2001) eggs were laid in 63 artificial nest sites (12, 23 and 28 nests in each season respectively). Storm petrels breeding in nest boxes were considerably more successful in producing fledged chicks than petrels nesting in natural cavities, where eggs were easily damaged, or the nest contents destroyed by larger petrel species enlarging the nest chamber. The percentage increase in breeding success was 274%, 197% and 361% in each season respectively. Given the low numbers of birds natural sites (and estimate 100 pairs for the summer population and 200 pairs in the winter), and their low breeding success, the increase production of fledged chicks 9
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