Project Overview

Background and goals

Global change may have multiple potential impacts on fisheries resources. Among others, it may precipitate changes in species ranges, and alterations on the timing of reproduction and spawning areas. Because each species responds differently, fish assemblages, species interactions and trophic webs may also suffer alterations. These large-scale processes can hardly be perceived and fully understood using solely a local or country-level scope.

Pioneering DNA-based approaches provide exceptional capabilities for monitoring organisms and communities with higher throughput, greater accuracy, detection ability and improved content in genetic information. Such capacities are particularly valuable in the current background of decline in marine biodiversity and fisheries resources driven by global change, overexploitation and other major impacts on marine ecosystems. Nevertheless, the benefits of DNA-based approaches are still highly unexplored for supporting the monitoring and management of fisheries resources, namely in the Atlantic area.

This research project aims for the development and implementation of DNA-based approaches in the monitoring of fisheries resources along the Magellan's Atlantic route, extending from Portugal to the southernmost Atlantic. Through a multi-country consortium, we intend to create the grounds for the future establishment of an Atlantic network of fish monitoring stations, that will provide broad-scale standardized data for assessment and sustainable management of fisheries resources.

Individually, the goals of the project are defined as follows:

1- Development and implementation of DNA-based approaches for species profiling of ichthyoplankton, leading to a taxonomically rigorous and high-throughput method, which can be applied in regular monitoring.

2- Explore the utility of eDNA extracted from seawater to develop and implement non-invasive DNA-based approaches for coastal fish species monitoring.

3- Conduct pilot demonstration studies in selected locations in the 3 partner countries (Portugal, Cabo Verde and Brazil) to illustrate the utility and potential of DNA-based methodologies for ichthyoplankton and fish monitoring.

4- Assemble data from multiple Atlantic fish resources, particularly those with wide geographic ranges, to conduct a comparative screening of potential genetic structure, mapping deeply divergent intraspecific lineages, hence enabling the diagnosis of separate stocks, and, possibly, hidden or cryptic species.