Preserving coastal ecosystems: UC project monitors Kentish Plover for sustainable management of sandy beaches and wetlands
The public presentation of the project will take place on Thursday at DCV.
On February 1st, the Department of Life Sciences (DCV) of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) will launch a European project to monitor the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus), aimed at protecting habitats and other wild species in coastal and wetland areas.
The presentation of ‘IBERALEX: Sustainable management of Iberian sandy beaches and wetlands: the conservation of the Kentish plover as a tool to reconcile human use and biodiversity’ will take place in the DCV auditorium at Colégio de S. Bento from 09:30 to 12:45.
Jaime Ramos, Principal Investigator (PI) of the project and a professor and researcher at DCV, explains: "The project aims to use the Kentish plover as an umbrella species and propose measures to improve its conservation in the Spain-Portugal border area, and its coexistence with human activities in a climate change scenario, as evidenced by the continuing rise in sea levels and coastal erosion”.
An umbrella species is one whose conservation ensures the conservation of other species. Ramos adds: 'Typically these are species such as top predators that require large areas of habitat or specific ecological conditions, so their conservation depends on maintaining the integrity of those conditions. In essence, protecting the umbrella species helps to protect the entire ecosystem within its habitat.
IBERALEX is a project funded by the Interreg V Spain-Portugal Programme (POCTEP) 2023-2027 and, in addition to the University of Coimbra, involves the Dirección Xeral de Patrimonio Natural - Xunta de Galicia (Directorate General of Natural Heritage), the Universities of Santiago de Compostela, Extremadura, Cádiz, Aveiro, and the Portuguese organisation Vita Nativa.