Preserving sandy beaches: biodiversity, goods and services, and impacts on a neglected ecosystem

• Grant number: 17/17071-9
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Alexander Turra
• Grantee: Guilherme Nascimento Corte
• Home Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 15/03804-9 - Environmental governance of macrometropolis paulista in face of climate variability, AP.PFPMCG.TEM

Abstract

Sandy beaches provide key ecosystem goods and services, such as shoreline protection and capture fisheries, and are essential for human populations around the world. Nevertheless, virtually all sandy beaches are threatened nowadays due to impacts of urbanization and climate change. These threats are expected to significantly, and perhaps irreversibly, impact the functioning and stability of sandy beach ecosystem, thereby compromising its supply of essential ecosystem goods and services. To successfully protect sandy beach ecosystem in the long term, conservation strategies should be based on sound scientific knowledge and include both ecological and social dimensions. The small number of studies done on sandy beaches (thus far the least studied coastal ecosystem), however, compromises a full understanding of this ecosystem. As a consequence, sandy beach management and conservation efforts consider mainly its social characteristics, disregarding fundamental ecological aspects such as functional biodiversity and provided ecosystem services. In this project, we aim to understand sandy beach ecosystems functioning and benefits provided by sandy beach biodiversity, considering physical and biological features and how they can be affected by anthropogenic impacts. We thereby expect to provide important information to be used in the development of effective conservation and management plans that can help protect sandy beach ecosystems.

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CORTE, GUILHERME N.; YOKOYAMA, LEONARDO Q.; CHECON, HELIO H.; TURRA, ALEXANDER. Spatial and temporal variation in the diet of the sandy beach gastropod Olivella minuta. Invertebrate Biology, NOV 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

CORTE, GUILHERME N.; YOKOYAMA, LEONARDO Q.; DENADAI, MARCIA R.; BESSA, EDUARDO; SALLES, MARIA CLAUDIA Z.; TURRA, ALEXANDER. Egg-capsule deposition of the marine gastropod Olivella minuta: the importance of an interspecific relationship with the soft-bottom bivalve Tivela mactroides. Journal of Molluscan Studies, v. 85, n. 1, p. 126-132, FEB 2019. Web of Science Citations: 1.

TURRA, ALEXANDER; CORTE, GUILHERME N.; AMARAL, ANTONIA CECILIA Z.; YOKOYAMA, LEONARDO Q.; DENADAI, MARCIA R. Non-linear curve adjustments widen biological interpretation of relative growth analyses of the clam Tivela mactroides (Bivalvia, Veneridae). PeerJ, v. 6, JUN 27 2018. Web of Science Citations: 0.

CORTE, GUILHERME N.; GONCALVES-SOUZA, THIAGO; CHECON, HELIO H.; SIEGLE, EDUARDO; COLEMAN, ROSS A.; AMARAL, A. CECILIA Z. When time affects space: Dispersal ability and extreme weather events determine metacommunity organization in marine sediments. MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH, v. 136, p. 139-152, MAY 2018. Web of Science Citations: 2.