Francisco Jardim de Almada Nascimento Associate Professor

Teaching

I lecture on different courses at DEEP including:

-Ecotoxicology

-Marine Biology

-Ecology I

BSc and MSc  projects

I am also interested in supervising BSc (kandidat) and MSc (master) projects in subjects relevant to my research interests. If you are looking for a project in marine ecology or ecotoxicology don't hesitate to contact me.

The overall focus of my research is to understand how ecosystems respond to anthropogenic and environmental disturbances both structurally and functionally. Specifically, my research activities have been guided by four main topics:  1-Responses of benthic communities to eutrophication; 2- Species interaction effects on benthic ecosystem processes; 3-  structuring factors of metazoan biodiversity in benthic habitats; 4- Toxicity of mixtures of contaminants on ecosystem function

Ongoing projects

2019-2023: NEMOte BARCODing: Advancing monitoring of Baltic benthic ecosystems. 

In this project  we aim to address employ state-of-the-art eDNA sequencing techniques and DNA metabarcoding to improve monitoring tools that assess benthic ecological status of the Baltic.

Read more

2023-2027: What are the environmental risks associated with seabed mining for rare earth elements in the Baltic Sea?Quantifying impacts on benthic biodiversity and ecosystem processes.

In this project we aim quantify the potential environmental impacts of SBM on
Baltic benthic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Fig.1). We will address this by capitalizing on the recent developments in eRNA sequencing and state-of-the-art biogeochemical tools. The data generated here will be used to improve an environmental risk assessment (ERA) framework important for regulators to determine the causal relationships between SBM and associated changes in
marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.