Origin, seasonality and chemical characteristics of rainwater in Aveiro

Este trabalho teve como objectivo caracterizar quimicamente a água da chuva recolhida na cidade de Aveiro, localizada a sudoeste da Europa, no período de Setembro de 2008 a Setembro de 2009. Para matrizes diluídas como a da água da chuva, as metodologias analíticas a utilizar para se conseguir uma rigorosa caracterização química são de grande importância e ainda não estão uniformizadas. Assim, para caracterizar a fracção orgânica, primeiramente foram comparadas duas metodologias de filtração (0.22 e 0.45 μm) e foram estudados dois procedimentos de preservação da água da chuva (refrigeração e congelação), utilizando a espectroscopia de fluorescência molecular. Além disso, foram comparados dois procedimentos de isolamento e extracção da matéria orgânica dissolvida (DOM) da água da chuva, baseados na sorção nos sorbentes DAX-8 e C-18, utilizando as espectroscopias de ultravioleta-visível e fluorescência molecular. Relativamente aos resultados das metodologias de filtração e preservação, é recomendada a filtração por 0.45 μm, assim como, as amostras de água da chuva deverão ser mantidas no escuro a 4ºC, no máximo até 4 dias, até às análises espectroscópicas. Relativamente à metodologia de isolamento e extracção da DOM, os resultados mostraram que o procedimento de isolamento baseado na C-18 extraiu a DOM que é representativa da matriz global, enquanto que o procedimento da DAX-8 extraiu preferencialmente a fracção do tipo húmico. Como no presente trabalho pretendíamos caracterizar a fracção do tipo húmico da DOM da água da chuva, foi escolhida a metodologia de isolamento e extracção baseada na sorção no sorvente DAX-8. Previamente ao isolamento e extracção da DOM da água da chuva, toda a fracção orgânica das amostras de água da chuva foi caracterizada pelas técnicas de ultravioleta-visível e de fluorescência molecular. As amostras mostraram características semelhantes às de outras águas naturais, e a água da chuva do Verão e Outono apresentou maior conteúdo da matéria orgânica dissolvida cromofórica que a do Inverno e Primavera. Posteriormente, a fracção do tipo húmico de algumas amostras de água da chuva, isolada e extraída pelo procedimento baseado na DAX-8, foi caracterizada utilizando as técnicas espectroscópicas de ultravioleta-visível, fluorescência molecular e ressonância magnética nuclear de protão. Todos os extractos continham uma mistura complexa de compostos hidroxilados e ácidos carboxílicos, com uma predominância da componente alifática e um baixo conteúdo da componente aromática. A fracção inorgânica da água da chuva foi caracterizada determinando a concentração das seguintes espécies iónicas: H+, NH4 +, Cl-, NO3 -, SO4 2-. Os resultados foram comparados com os obtidos na chuva colectada no mesmo local entre 1986-1989 e mostraram que de todos os iões determinados a concentração de NO3 - foi a única que aumentou (cerca do dobro) em 20 anos, tendo sido atribuído ao aumento de veículos e emissões industriais na área de amostragem. Durante o período de amostragem cerca de 80% da precipitação esteve associada a massas de ar oceânicas, enquanto a restante esteve relacionada com massas que tiveram uma influência antropogénica e terrestre. De um modo geral, para as fracções orgânica e inorgânica da água da chuva analisadas, o conteúdo químico foi menor para as amostras que estiveram associadas a massas de ar marítimas do que para as amostras que tiveram contribuições terrestres e antropogénicas.

The fishery for Norway lobster off the portuguese coast: a biological and economic assessment

Dissertação de mest., Aquacultura e Pescas, Faculdade de Ciências do Mar e Ambiente, Universidade do Algarve, 2009

Development of an operational tool for oil spill forecast: application to oil exposed regions

Tese de doutoramento, Ciências do Mar, da Terra e do Ambiente (Modelação), Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2014

Population dynamics and fisheries assessment of the bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus) in the Atlantic: a comparison between North Atlantic and South Atlantic stocks

Tese de doutoramento, Ciências do Mar, da Terra e do Ambiente (Biologia Pesqueira), Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2015

Modeling the suitable habitat of a structural red gorgonian species in the Mediterranean/east Atlantic regions predicts a wider distribution than previously known

Dissertação de mestrado, Biologia Marinha, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Univerdade do Algarve, 2015

Genesis of the brecciated rocks from mid atlantic ridge hydrothermal systems : Lucky Strike (37º50’N) and Menez Gwen (37º50’N)

Tese de doutoramento, Geologia (Metalogenia), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2014

Ecology of the common octopus "Octopus vulgaris" (Cuvier, 1797) in the Atlantic Iberian coast : life cycle strategies under different oceanographic regimes

Tese de doutoramento, Biologia (Biologia Marinha e Aquacultura), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2015

Re-negotiating Ideologies of Bilingualism on the Margins of Education

This article reports on an ethnographic study carried out in three interrelated sites: two contrasting secondary schools and a Youth-Club (the principal focus of this article), in an area of southwest Wales. This article highlights the incongruence between the language at home and the language of the school and posits that the relationship between language use at school and in the wider community needs to be problematised and questioned far more than has been done thus far. This study questions whether school-based ideologies and school-based practices are re-negotiated or contested on the margins of education and whether this re-negotiation and contestation plays an important role in whether a young person chooses to use Welsh or English outside of school. It will be argued that recreational spaces, even though loosely connected to schools as institutions, function as more open spaces where institutional ideologies are actively reworked and renegotiated, either through choosing to use English or by mixing and blending different aspects of linguistic resources, or by re-negotiating and questioning which version of Welshness is more valuable, ‘the removed and authentic’ (as seen at the Welsh school) or the ‘new and hybrid’ as seen at the Youth-Club.

Radiological impact associated to Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) from coal-fired power plants emissions

Certain materials used and produced in a wide range of non-nuclear industries contain enhanced activity concentrations of natural radionuclides. In particular, electricity production from coal is one of the major sources of increased human exposure to naturally occurring radioactive materials. A methodology was developed to assess the radiological impact due to natural radiation background. The developed research was applied to a specific case study, the Sines coal-fired power plant, located in the southwest coastline of Portugal. Gamma radiation measurements were carried out with two different instruments: a sodium iodide scintillation detector counter (SPP2 NF, Saphymo) and a gamma ray spectrometer with energy discrimination (Falcon 5000, Canberra). Two circular survey areas were defined within 20 km of the power plant. Forty relevant measurements points were established within the sampling area: 15 urban and 25 suburban locations. Additionally, ten more measurements points were defined, mostly at the 20-km area. The registered gamma radiation varies from 20 to 98.33 counts per seconds (c.p.s.) corresponding to an external gamma exposure rate variable between 87.70 and 431.19 nGy/h. The highest values were measured at locations near the power plant and those located in an area within the 6 and 20 km from the stacks. In situ gamma radiation measurements with energy discrimination identified natural emitting nuclides as well as their decay products (Pb-212, Pb-2142, Ra-226, Th-232, Ac-228, Th-234, Pa-234, U- 235, etc.). According to the results, an influence from the stacks emissions has been identified both qualitatively and quantitatively. The developed methodology accomplished the lack of data in what concerns to radiation rate in the vicinity of Sines coal-fired power plant and consequently the resulting exposure to the nearby population.

Assessment of heavy metals in the surroundings of coal-fired power plant

This paper aims to survey metal concentrations in soils in the vicinity of a coal-firedpower plant located in southwest of Portugal. Two annual sampling campaigns were carried out to measure a hypothetical soil contamination around the coal plant. The sampling area was divided into two subareas, both centered in the emission source, delimited by two concentric circles with radius of 6 km and 20 km. About 40 samplings points were defined in the influence area. Metals measurements were performed with a portable analytical X-ray dispersive energy fluorescence spectrometer identifying about 20 different elements in each sampling point. The most relevant elements measured included As, Cu, Fe, Hg, Pb, Ti and Zn in both sampling areas. Considering the results obtained in the first sampling campaign, arsenic is predominantly higher within the 6-20 km sampling area. The second sampling campaign showed that both sampling areas presented relatively similar metal concentrations except for Fe, Mn, Sr and Zn which concentration is higher within the 6-20 km sampling area. Also, As, Fe, Mn and Ti concentrations decreased significantly from the first to the second sampling campaign and their concentration were predominately higher in the NE-E and E-SE directions.

Radioactivity levels of 238U and 232Th decay series and related dose rates in the surroundings of a coal power plant using high resolution g-spectrometry

Gamma radiations measurements were carried out in the vicinity of a coal-fired power plant located in the southwest coastline of Portugal. Two different gamma detectors were used to assess the environmental radiation within a circular area of 20 km centred in the coal plant: a scintillometer (SPP2 NF, Saphymo) and a high purity germanium detector (HPGe, Canberra). Fifty urban and suburban measurements locations were established within the defined area and two measurements campaigns were carried out. The results of the total gamma radiation ranged from 20.83 to 98.33 counts per second (c.p.s.) for both measurement campaigns and outdoor doses rates ranged from 77.65 to 366.51 Gy/h. Natural emitting nuclides from the U-238 and Th-232 decay series were identified as well as the natural emitting nuclide K-40. The radionuclide concentration from the uranium and thorium series determined by gamma spectrometry ranged from 0.93 to 73.68 Bq/kg, while for K-40 the concentration ranged from 84.14 to 904.38 Bq/kg. The obtained results were used primarily to define the variability in measured environmental radiation and to determine the coal plant’s influence in the measured radiation levels. The highest values were measured at two locations near the power plant and at locations between the distance of 6 and 20 km away from the stacks, mainly in the prevailing wind direction. The results showed an increase or at least an influence from the coal-fired plant operations, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Assessment of NDVI, land surface temperature and precipitation anomalies for drought monitoring in Bayankhongor province, Mongolia

During the last decade Mongolia’s region was characterized by a rapid increase of both severity and frequency of drought events, leading to pasture reduction. Drought monitoring and assessment plays an important role in the region’s early warning systems as a way to mitigate the negative impacts in social, economic and environmental sectors. Nowadays it is possible to access information related to the hydrologic cycle through remote sensing, which provides a continuous monitoring of variables over very large areas where the weather stations are sparse. The present thesis aimed to explore the possibility of using NDVI as a potential drought indicator by studying anomaly patterns and correlations with other two climate variables, LST and precipitation. The study covered the growing season (March to September) of a fifteen year period, between 2000 and 2014, for Bayankhongor province in southwest Mongolia. The datasets used were MODIS NDVI, LST and TRMM Precipitation, which processing and analysis was supported by QGIS software and Python programming language. Monthly anomaly correlations between NDVI-LST and NDVI-Precipitation were generated as well as temporal correlations for the growing season for known drought years (2001, 2002 and 2009). The results show that the three variables follow a seasonal pattern expected for a northern hemisphere region, with occurrence of the rainy season in the summer months. The values of both NDVI and precipitation are remarkably low while LST values are high, which is explained by the region’s climate and ecosystems. The NDVI average, generally, reached higher values with high precipitation values and low LST values. The year of 2001 was the driest year of the time-series, while 2003 was the wet year with healthier vegetation. Monthly correlations registered weak results with low significance, with exception of NDVI-LST and NDVI-Precipitation correlations for June, July and August of 2002. The temporal correlations for the growing season also revealed weak results. The overall relationship between the variables anomalies showed weak correlation results with low significance, which suggests that an accurate answer for predicting drought using the relation between NDVI, LST and Precipitation cannot be given. Additional research should take place in order to achieve more conclusive results. However the NDVI anomaly images show that NDVI is a suitable drought index for Bayankhongor province.

Genetic diversity and differentiation processes in the ploidy series of Olea europaea L.: a multiscale approach from subspecies to insular populations.

Geographical isolation and polyploidization are central concepts in plant evolution. The hierarchical organization of archipelagos in this study provides a framework for testing the evolutionary consequences for polyploid taxa and populations occurring in isolation. Using amplified fragment length polymorphism and simple sequence repeat markers, we determined the genetic diversity and differentiation patterns at three levels of geographical isolation in Olea europaea: mainland-archipelagos, islands within an archipelago, and populations within an island. At the subspecies scale, the hexaploid ssp. maroccana (southwest Morocco) exhibited higher genetic diversity than the insular counterparts. In contrast, the tetraploid ssp. cerasiformis (Madeira) displayed values similar to those obtained for the diploid ssp. guanchica (Canary Islands). Geographical isolation was associated with a high genetic differentiation at this scale. In the Canarian archipelago, the stepping-stone model of differentiation suggested in a previous study was partially supported. Within the western lineage, an east-to-west differentiation pattern was confirmed. Conversely, the easternmost populations were more related to the mainland ssp. europaea than to the western guanchica lineage. Genetic diversity across the Canarian archipelago was significantly correlated with the date of the last volcanic activity in the area/island where each population occurs. At the island scale, this pattern was not confirmed in older islands (Tenerife and Madeira), where populations were genetically homogeneous. In contrast, founder effects resulted in low genetic diversity and marked genetic differentiation among populations of the youngest island, La Palma.

Sedimentos marinos superficiales en la bahía del Callao, Perú. 1997

Durante El Niño 1997, se estudiaron los sedimentos marinos superficiales de la bahía del Callao (11°50’S a 12°06’S), en 68 estaciones de muestreo situadas al interior de la bahía, incluyendo Ventanilla. Se situaron 35 estaciones complementarias entre las desembocaduras de los ríos Rímac y Chillón donde se concentran las descargas de desechos industriales, urbanos y de actividad portuaria. Se realizaron tres transectos, frente a: playa Ventanilla, al colector Comas y a Chucuito-La Punta. Frente a la playa Márquez se encuentra textura areno arcillosa y hacia el norte predomina el fango; frente a Oquendo las texturas son fango y arena arcillosa. Sedimentos de grano fino, con textura limo arcillosa y arcillo limosa existen en el fondo marino de zonas más profundas y alejadas de la costa; pero también están cerca de la costa, al sur y suroeste de la zona de operaciones portuarias, frente a Chucuito y La Punta. Texturas de arena se registraron al norte del río Chillón (La Pampilla y Ventanilla), en los alrededores del banco Camotal y frente a La Punta. En las áreas más profundas y abrigadas de la bahía, los sedimentos con granulometría muy fina presentan valores negativos de asimetría, característicos de ambientes de sedimentación. En sectores donde existen sedimentos de grano más grueso ocurren procesos de transporte (tipo y forma de ondulaciones) y erosión, apreciables en imágenes del fondo, y en el análisis de parámetros estadísticos. Los altos contenidos de materia orgánica se encuentran asociados a sedimentos de grano fino en ambientes de sedimentación principalmente, está condicionado por la tasa de aporte y origen (antrópico, marino o continental) y por las condiciones de escaso oxígeno que favorecen su preservación. Los más bajos contenidos orgánicos frente a la zona costera de Ventanilla, están asociadas a sedimentos con predominancia de fracciones de arena y origen terrígeno y mayor oxigenación.

Central Utilities Building

View from outside the Central Utilities Building facing southwest.