Percorrer por autor "Ramos, Jorge"
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- An artificial reef at the edge of the deep: An interdisciplinary case studyPublication . Ramos, Jorge; Tuaty-Guerra, Miriam; Almeida, Mariana; Raposo, Ana C.; Gaudêncio, Maria J.; Silva, Alexandra D.; Rodrigues, Nuno; Leandro, Sérgio M.; Caetano, MiguelJust nearby the largest submarine canyon in Europe – off the western coast of Portugal – is located the Nazaré artificial reef (NAR) deployed in 2010 and the first of its kind in this coast. NAR aimed to improve social and economic resilience of the local communities, mainly by creating a safer and closer area for fishing and to enhance commercially exploitable marine resources. The innovative part of this research lies on the fact that for the first time was developed a multidisciplinary approach for NAR. Scientificevidence from fieldwork shows that in 2015 the reef was already mature and colonized by abundant and diversified macrobenthic assemblages. No evidence of negative impacts of NAR on the soft bottom macrofauna was observed, as assemblage composition in the NAR area and in the vicinity areas is similar. In relation to the primary producers that support the subsequent food chain, there also seems to be a balance between NAR and the surrounding area since phytoplankton was equally abundant throughout the area. Experimental fisheries and underwater visual census results on ichthyofaunal communities in the reef revealed high abundance and low levels of species richness, pouting, Trisopterus luscus Linnaeus, 1758 being the most common fish species found. Concerning NAR socio-economic impact, results from direct site observations (DSOs) showed that only some small-scale fishing vessels were eligible to operate on the NAR area. Thus, comparatively to non-AR areas nearby reef use by fishing vessels differs according to spatial and temporal strata. In what perception was concerned, the NAR has contributed to fish aggregation, though being populated mostly by small fish. Fishers have stated that some factors seemed to have changed after reef deployment. Notwithstanding, the NAR may have been a valuable contribution to an apparently overall socio-economic positive impact on the local fishing community that can be corroborated by the presence of good biological indicators.
- Local fishermen’s perceptions of the usefulness of artificial reef ecosystem services in PortugalPublication . Ramos, Jorge; Lino, Pedro G.; Himes-Cornell, Amber; Santos, Miguel N.Proponents of artificial reef (AR) deployment are often motivated by the usefulness of such structures. The usefulness of ARs is related to their capability of providing ecosystem services/additional functions. We present two distinct Portuguese AR case studies: (1) The Nazaré reef off the central coast of Portugal and (2) the Oura reef off the Algarve coast. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with local fishermen in the fishing towns of Nazaré and Quarteira pre-and post-AR deployment. The main focus of the interviews was to understand fishermen’s perception of AR usefulness (or lack thereof) in terms of nine ecosystem services/additional functions potentially provided by the ARs. We tested the null hypothesis that ARs do not provide additional ecosystem services/additional functions. When queried pre-AR deployment, fishermen indicated that ARs are most likely to provide three ecosystem services: “habitat and refuge,” “biodiversity preservation” and “food production.” Fishermen had similar perceptions post-deployment. For the Nazaré reef, fishermen tended to have a positive or neutral perception of ecosystem services/additional functions being provided by ARs. For the Oura reef, fishermen tended to have a mostly neutral perception of AR ecosystem services; however, there were also some positive and other negative perceptions. It was difficult for stakeholders to conceptualize some of the ecosystem services/additional functions provided by ARs prior to actively using them. As a result, some stakeholders changed their perception of the ecosystem services/additional functions after using the structures. These results indicate that stakeholders likely need to perceive ARs as useful in order for them to provide their support for AR installation. Likewise, their support is often needed to justify the use of public funds to install ARs, therefore making it imperative for resource managers to undertake similar interviews with fishermen when considering the use of ARs in other areas.