Previous research projects

2015 to 2022 - Unveiling the Equatorial Margin of the Blue Amazon: Structure, Diversity and Functional Aspects of the Reefs Associated with the mouth of the Amazon River

During my Master and Ph.D., I was involved in several surveys to find the coralline reefs in the outer shelf of the Amazon Continental Margin in Brazilian Equatorial Margin. Represented the first systematic description of these offshore rocky structures within the Brazilian portion based on multi beam data, rock sampling and video footage acquired during manned submersible dives operated from the R/V Alucia oceanographic cruise in July/2017. I was particularly interested in the questions: 1) Are calcareous algae the building blocks of the high relief formations and rhodoliths beds that are conditioned to the dynamics and sedimentation regime at the mouth of the Amazon River? and, 2) How does the Holocene sea level rise relate to the origin of the Amazon reefs? Do they grow today? I performed a paleoenvironmental interpretation of the evolution of the structures based on radiocarbon dates and geomorphological, sedimentological and paleontological features. Grants: National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)-JBRJ Agreement, Brazil. 

2018 to 2021 - PMBA Aquatic Biodiversity Monitoring Program - Environmental Area I - coastal and marine regions of the states of ES and BA from Brazil

I worked on the monitoring of reef systems from South Atlantic and study the possible damage by the collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana City/MG, the biggest environmental disaster on Brazilian coast. In the field, I handled photographic equipment, GPS, CTD, multiparameter probes, and collection equipment, such as dredge and Dropcamera. In the lab I analyzed and interpreted the data and rhodolith samples collected using softwares such as CoralNet and Ocean Data View, statistical software, taxonomic identification of organisms, and analysis of images and videos taken with Dropcamera. 

2016 to 2018  - Monitoring climate change at Abrolhos Bank - largest coral reef in the South Atlantic

While I was part of the Rede Abrolhos team I've participated in several oceanographic expeditions from Algae Lab (Botanical Garden Research Institute -JBRJ) to collect data and samples for monitoring, in the scope of the Long Lasting Ecological Program (PELD) Abrolhos, on the Archipelago of Abrolhos/BA, Brazil. In the field, I manipulated photographic equipment, GPS, Dropcamera, dredge, and collected rhodoliths through scuba diving. In the laboratory, I analyzed and interpreted the collected data, through the taxonomic identification of organisms and sediment analysis.

2015 to 2017 - Paleoecological and Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of the Abrolhos Continental Shelf: Technical qualification of the team in deposits and carbonate rocks

With my collaborators from Rede Abrolhos of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and Federal University of Espirito Santo (UFES), I worked with techniques of collection, storage and analysis of marine testimonies collected in the Abrolhos Archipelago/BA and the Brazilian Equatorial Margin, and subsequent analysis of radiometric dating of carbon 14 with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry -AMS- done at the Center for Applied Studies (GA, USA), and qualitative/quantitative analysis of petrographic slides done at the National Petrographic Service (TX, USA).