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This field report presents the sampling carried out in June 2022 during a mission on the island of Terceira (Azores, Portugal). The main objective of the mission was to find and probe ombrotrophic peatlands in order to reconstruct the chronology of micropollutant deposition including microplastics in the North Atlantic. The peatlands and cores are described, as well as the aerosol and water samples taken.

A agricultura intensiva é uma das actividades que mais influencia a estrutura da paisagem, levando frequentemente à destruição e à perda de biodiversidade local. Por exemplo, a intensidade e gestão das actividades agrícolas pode influenciar dramaticamente a composição e abundância das comunidades de artrópodes que habitam nos agroecosistemas. Alguns artrópodes fitófagos podem causar danos aos pomares ao consumirem parte da planta ou fruto. No entanto, muitos outros podem fornecer serviços benéficos, como a polinização, o controlo de pragas e a decomposição. Os carochos, formigas e aranhas são predadores generalistas importantes para ajudar a controlar pragas de insectos, e, inclusive, reduzir a quantidade de ervas daninhas ao consumir as suas sementes. Quer os ecólogos quer os agrónomos acreditam que a simplicidade dos modernos campos agrícolas, especialmente os extensos campos em monoculturas que recebem frequentes aplicações de pesticidas, contribuem para os surtos de pragas, bastante típicos desses tipos de sistema. Os agroecossistemas mais simples podem ser ambientes relativamente hostis para os inimigos naturais, conduzindo à depauperação das comunidades de predadores e parasitóides. Os ecossistemas agrícolas mais diversificados, por outro lado, tendem a recrutar espécies ruderais, as quais, em geral, são mais resistentes à perturbação destes ambientes agrícolas. O declínio da biodiversidade dos inimigos naturais geralmente enfraquece o controlo biológico. Uma das razões por trás disso é que as comunidades mais ricas podem reunir espécies de inimigos naturais que atacam pragas usando diferentes estratégias ou nichos espaciais e temporais, de modo que a mortalidade total infligida sobre as pragas é maximizada apenas quando várias espécies inimigas ocorrem simultaneamente. O desafio que se coloca aos ecólogos e agrónomos é entender de que forma a biodiversidade dos inimigos naturais pode fortalecer o controlo biológico. Este livro contribui para a identificação e proteção dos artrópodes predadores, que são muito úteis para a agricultura e por isso benéficos para toda a sociedade. [da Nota Introdutória] FINANCIAMENTO: Este livro é um produto do projecto AGRO-ECOSERVICES (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000073), financiado pelo FEDER em 85% e por fundos regionais em 15%, através do Programa Operacional Açores 2020. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

O Guia Prático da Flora Nativa dos Açores / Field Guide of Azorean Native Flora facilita não só o conhecimento das principais espécies da flora açoriana, como permite uma fácil e rápida identificação das endémicas, seja das mais comuns, seja das mais raras. Contempla quase três centenas de espécies, incluindo fichas de líquenes, musgos, hepáticas, antocerotas, fetos e licófitas, gimnospérmicas e angiospérmicas, e inclui a localização onde podem ser avistadas, juntamente com um conjunto de aspetos de natureza científica, divulgando o património natural da Região, bem como a sua rica biodiversidade. FINANCIAMENTO: Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e Alterações Climáticas, Governo Regional dos Açores. Projecto FCT “GUIA DE CAMPO: Ferramentas Móveis lnterativas para a Aprendizagem Baseada no Local” (PTDC/CED-EDG/31182/2017); Projecto FCT “MULTI-YEAR PROJECT 2020-2023” (cE3c/GBA UIDB/00329/2020); Projecto LIFE, “PRIBES - Estratégia Regional para a Prevenção e Controlo de Espécies Exóticas Invasoras” (LIFE IP AZORES NATURA, LIFE17 IPE/PT/000010). info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

O desenvolvimento sustentável (DS) figura entre as metas da sociedade contemporânea, sublinhando a imprescindibilidade da sua redefinição coletiva e apropriação social e pessoal. Para isso é relevante analisar como é que os indivíduos apreendem o processo de construção da sustentabilidade. A representação social do DS de uma amostra intencional de 64 stakeholders oriundos de cinco cidades açorianas foi explorada através de análises prototípica e de similaridade de uma associação livre de palavras. Os dados foram analisados recorrendo aos programas Evocation 2003 e IRAMUTEQ e interpretados de acordo com a abordagem estrutural das representações sociais. A representação resultante identifica os três pilares clássicos do DS, os seus principais desafios e opções estratégicas. Salienta-se o lugar central da vertente econômica, interligada com a ambiental e a social, embora esta última tenha menor ênfase. Importa acompanhar a evolução desta noção de DS que parece mais sofisticada do que as encontradas noutros estudos. ABSTRACT: Sustainable development (SD) is one of the goals of contemporary society, underlining the need of its collective redefinition and social and personal appropriation. For this, it is relevant to analyze how individuals understand the process of building sustainability. The social representation of the SD of an intentional sample of 64 stakeholders from five Azorean cities was explored through prototypical and similarity analysis of a free association of words. The data were analyzed using the programs Evocation 2003 and IRAMUTEQ and interpreted according to the structural approach of social representations. The resulting representation identifies the three classic pillars of the SD, as well as its main challenges and strategic options. The economic pillar held a central place, interconnecting both with the environmental and the social pillars, although the latter showed less emphasis. It is important to keep monitoring the evolution of this SD representation, that appears to be more sophisticated than other notions found in similar studies. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Aim: Much research has focused on the separate and combined effects of habitat and geography on species communities, both in mainland and island ecosystems. However, few studies have looked into the differences among communities inhabiting different island habitats. Here we aim to determine the contributions of habitat filtering and dispersal to the differences in taxonomic structure of island communities across geographic scales. Location: Sixty plots in two habitats (forest and dry habitat) across eight islands of the Macaronesian archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and Cabo Verde. Taxon: Spiders (Araneae). Methods: We generated community data by using the optimised and standardised COBRA sampling protocols. We tested the differences in three beta diversity metrics ( βTotal, βReplacement and βRichness) for each habitat and dispersal category separately, across geographic scales through nested non-parametric PerMANOVA. We tested if dispersal and habitat influenced differences between the communities of the same area by applying a PERMDISP to βreplacement, and using the distances in linear mixed models. We tested the effects of habitat and dispersal on species relative abundances (SADs) and rarity by building Gambin models for each community and dispersal group separately. Results: Communities grouped according to archipelago and habitat, in terms of taxonomic similarity. In general, β diversity increased with geographic scale, and was greater in dry habitats. βReplacement among communities of the same region was greater in dry habitats than in forests, and this difference was stronger for rare ballooners. Dry habitat communities showed more species with low abundances (rare species) at different spatial scales. Main conclusions: Our findings reveal that habitat type does not only condition the processes behind community assembly but also the scale at which they occur. Indeed, our findings are highly relevant for theories on across and within island community assembly as well as for biodiversity conservation., Field work was supported by two projects: 1) the ERA-Net Net-Biome research framework, Canary Islands Government ACIISI grants SE-12/02 (PO), SE-12/03 (JCC), SE-12/04 (BE), co-financed by FEDER, Portuguese FCT-NETBIOME grant 0003/2011 (PB); and 2) FCT MACDIV – FCT PTDC/BIABIC/0054/2014. Open Access was financed by the project UID/BIA/00329/2020. The National Parks of Terceira and Pico (Azores), the Instituto das Florestas e da Conservação da Natureza (Madeira), the Cabildos of Tenerife and La Gomera, Garajonay National Park (La Gomera) as well as the Cabo Verde Government provided permits for specimen collection in protected areas. IRA was funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Norma Transitória DL57/2016/CP1375/CT0003.

C&T'21: 10th International Conference on Communities & Technologies: Wicked Problems in the Age of Tech - Seattle, United States, June 20–25, 2021. Here we present Field Guide, a mobile application (app) designed to connect communities to nature-rich environments, which play a crucial role in nature conservation efforts. The app aligns to a mode of science communication that seeks to establish direct contact between publics and specialised scientific communities, most commonly known as the ’ask a scientist’ approach. Field Guide uses a geolocation positioning system to offer users the opportunity to pose questions to scientists whilst exploring a nature conservation site. In this demo, we display the app as a mock-up presentation before its first use by children and teenagers during afield-trip to a nature trail later in 2021. The Field Guide project is funded by The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, grant number PTDC/CEDEDG/31182/2017; IRA was funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Norma Transitória – DL57/2016/CP1375/CT0003. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Are perspectives on urban sustainability forged by global context or influenced by local contexts or by personal features? To respond to this question the Q method approach is used to identify the main perspectives of urban sustainability in five Azorean cities and compare them with the local context. Results show that: a) urban contexts, rather than personal features, exert a strong influence on the sustainable perspectives of the stakeholders; b) positive perspectives on sustainable development are always assumed by respective municipal employees; and c) social worries are often more relevant than environmental problems. Summing up, even for global problems, such as urban sustainability, people’s awareness is strongly influenced by local context and by issues that can be addressed locally reinforcing the concept of place-based policies having a say. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Historic urban parks and gardens are increasingly being considered as interesting refuges for a great number of species, including some rare taxa, otherwise almost absent from urban areas, such as many bryophytes and other biota that are not their main focus. After a bibliographic work, the "Reserva Florestal de Recreio do Pinhal da Paz" (RFR-PP), in São Miguel Island (Azores), stood out as one of the least studied areas of the region, without any bryophyte’ references. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the most striking bryophyte species present along the main visitation track of RFR-PP, in order to increase its biodiversity knowledge. Bryophytes growing on rocks, soil or tree bark were collected adhoc, in 17 sites, ca. 100 m apart from each other. In total, 43 species were identified: 23 mosses, 19 liverworts, and one hornwort, encompassing five classes, 15 orders and 27 families. Seven species are endemic from Europe and three from Macaronesia. No invasive bryophytes were found in the surveyed area. These results update the distribution data of São Miguel Island, show that Azorean parks and gardens contribute to the community dynamics of bryophytes at lower elevation and add a new layer of interest to the visitors of RFR-PP. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Os briófitos são o segundo maior grupo de plantas do mundo, com mais de 22.000 espécies (Goffinet & Shaw, 2009). Cerca de 1.500 espécies estão referidas para a Europa (Hodgetts, 2015) e perto de 500 para os Açores (Gabriel et al., 2010; 2011), ou seja. existem cerca de um terço das espécies em apenas 0,05% do território Europeu, o que mostra a importância do Arquipélago como lugar de excelência para o estudo, conservação e observação destas plantas. Com efeito, os briófitos marcam, de forma sub­til ou expressiva, as nossas paisagens e ecossistemas. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion