Universidade Federal do Ceará
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Marinhas Tropicais – PPGCMT

Tidal seas – how do the rising tides influence life in the tropics?

Event Type:  Free hybrid Training Course

When: November 13-17, 2023

Where: Brazil (in-person student training) and Online (talks with international researchers)

Find out more: www.ppgcmt.ufc.br and www.instagram.com/ppgcmt.ufc 

Summary

Living under the influence of tides is not an easy task. Even so, different ecosystems have found a way of thriving and play vital roles in maintaining biodiversity and providing essential services. Mangroves, sandy beaches, seagrass meadows, saltmarshes, and reefs are some of those ecosystems, each one with unique features as well as a plethora of goods and services worth giving a closer look at, such as being highly productive and blue carbon sinks. Nowadays, they are all threatened by different stressors related to global climate change and human impacts, factors that sum up to the ecological drivers that have sharpened them for centuries. In this strict balance between life and death, enduring and vanishing, they can provide nature-based solutions to help us deal with the socioecological crisis we are facing nowadays.

This year, the 6th Fortaleza Austral Spring School will be held on November 13-17th, 2023, with the theme “Tidal seas – how do the rising tides influence life in the tropics?”. The theme will be approached in lectures, debates, and practical courses with some of the best specialists in those ecosystems.

The School will start with two days dedicated to lecture sessions and panel discussions, both held online with the support of AirCentre. Then, students will have three days dedicated to field courses. This year, four field courses will be run in parallel, each focusing on different methodologies for studying mangroves, sandy beaches, reefs, and seagrass meadows. In this Edition, we will also repeat the flash presentations side event, which was a great success in the last edition, giving students of different backgrounds in the area the opportunity to present their studies as a plus to all the knowledge they will be learning during those five days.

Organizing Committee

Luiz Drude de Lacerda

Alexander Ferreira Román

Emerson Alves Arruda

Tommaso Giarrizzo

Tallita C L Tavares

Program Overview

DAY 1

Monday – 13th November, 2023

Morning
(8:40 h) Opening ceremony 

Profa. Lidriana Pinheiro – Director of LABOMAR
Profa. Caroline Feitosa – Coordinator of the Post-Graduation Program in Tropical Marine Sciences
Dra. Tallita Tavares – Chair of the 6th Fortaleza Austral Spring School
Profa. Regina Célia Monteiro de Paula- Pro-Rectorate of Research and Graduate Studies from UFC

(09:00 – 10:00 h) Opening Lecture 

Conservation of Wetland Areas in Brazil: challenges and needs – Profa. Yara Schaeffer-Novelli

Session Chair: Prof. Luiz Drude de Lacerda

(10:30 -12:00 h) Session 1 – Ecosystem goods and services 

Session Chair: Prof. Alexander Ferreira Román

Lecture 1 – Mangroves and saltmarshes – Prof. Raymond Ward

Lecture 2 – Ocean Citizen Project – Prof. Sergio Rossi

Questions and discussions

(12:00 – 13:00 h) Break 

(13:00 – 14:00 h) Side-event oral presentations 

(14:00 às 16:00 h) Afternoon 

Round Table – Urban development associated risks for coastal ecosystems

Chair: Prof. Marcelo Soares

Guests:

Prof. Sergio Rossi

Prof. Samuel Façanha

Prof. Raymond Ward

DAY 2

Tuesday – 14TH November, 2023

Morning

(8:30 – 10:00 h) Session1 – Coastal zones: between climate change and urbanization 

Session Chair: Me. Emerson Arruda

Lecture 1 – Challenges for Reef Zones – Prof. Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip

Lecture 2 – Managing Coastal Vulnerability in Urban Beaches – Dra. Flávia Lins de Barros

(10:30 – 12:00 h) Session 2 – Conservation and rehabilitation 

Session Chair: Dra. Tallita C L Tavares

Lecture 1 – Comparisons between mangrove rehabilitation/restoration initiatives around the world – Prof. Alexander Ferreira

Lecture 2 – Reef restoration – understanding the Coral Biofabric – Prof. Rudã Fernandes

Break

(14:00 às 16:00 h) Afternoon 

Panel discussion – Carbon market: solution or profitable business?

Session Chair: Prof. Gabriel Nuto

Guests:

Prof. Alexandre Costa

Prof. William Vasquez

Prof. Luiz Drude de Lacerda

DAYS 3, 4, and 5 – Field Courses 

15th to 17th November, 2023 (full-time)

Place: Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil) 

Course 

Field course on methods in mangrove and saltmarshes study – Prof. Raymond Ward and Prof. Alexander Ferreira

Field course on methods of studying the ecology of reef systems – Prof. Serio Rossi and Prof. Marcelo Soares

Field course on methods of studying the ecology of marine seagrasses – Profa. Karine Magalhães

REGISTRATIONS:

• REGISTER FOR ONLINE SESSIONS: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4cSaSlT1TmWbmhJ-hXlOQw
• SUBMIT ABSTRACT AND VIDEO (SIDE EVENT ORAL PRESENTATIONS): https://forms.gle/ReuWhnBvMpR5byT49
• REGISTER FOR FIELD-TRAINING (FORTALEZA, CE, BRAZIL): https://forms.gle/MxFo7BHJQziVGy7R8

Confirmed speakers

Day 1 – Monday – November 13th, 2023

Opening Lecture – Profa. Yara Schaeffer-Novelli (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)

Session 1

Lecture 1 – Prof. Raymond Ward (Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia)

Lecture 2 – Prof. Sergio Rossi (Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil/ Ocean Citizen EU Project)

Round table guests

Prof. Sergio Rossi (Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil/ Ocean Citizen EU Project)

Prof. Samuel Façanha (Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Brazil)

Prof. Raymond Ward (Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia)

Day 2 – Tuesday – November 14th, 2023

Session 1

Lecture 1 – Prof. Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Puerto Morelos, México)

Lecture 2 – Profa. Flávia Lins de Barros (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Session 2

Lecture 1 – Prof. Alexander Ferreira (Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil)

Lecture 2 – Prof. Rudã Fernandes (Biofábrica de Corais, Pernambuco, Brazil)

Round table guests

Prof. Alexandre Costa (Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Brazil)

Prof. William Vasquez (Fairfield University, USA)

Prof. Luiz Drude de Lacerda (Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil)

Commitment of the event to the social rights and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

The 6th Fortaleza Austral Spring School supports the commitment to the 2021-2030 United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development Goals (IOC, 2020), which proposes disseminating information on ocean-related issues to guarantee a clean, transparent, and accessible ocean for future generations. Also, the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean (ONU, 2019).  Therefore, this training will provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges faced by tidal ecosystems in the tropics, which are vital and provide a wide range of goods and services despite being constantly threatened by different stressors related to global climate change and anthropogenic impacts.

The Spring School is a free online event that aspires to provide broad access to education worldwide, to geographically dispersed and marginalized individuals, and to gender-biased communities. Thus, the event will contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., 4 – Quality Education  6 – Clean Water and Sanitation, and 14 – Life below Water) based on solid scientific knowledge to face Anthropocene challenges and contribute to new generations of ocean scientists.

Organizing Institutions

Postgraduate Program in Tropical Marine Sciences (PPGCMT)

Institute of Marine Sciences (LABOMAR)

Federal University of Ceará (UFC)

Technical and Scientific Support

Atlantic International Research Centre (Air Centre)

Partners

Postgraduate Program in Biodiversity and Conservation (PPGBC/UFMA)

Postgraduate Program in Biodiversity and Marine and Coastal Ecology (PPGBEMC/UNIFESP)

Postgraduate Program in Aquatic Ecology and Fishing (PPGEAP/UFPA)