fish, fisheries, human ecology, ecotoxicology, mercury, fish contamination, food security
Theme 1 - Measuring
Our research group has extensive experience on research about fish uses, small-scale fisheries, fish ecology, human ecology and fishers' local ecological knowledge in tropical ecosystems in Brazil, especially in large rivers of the Brazilian Amazon. During out last three research projects, we collected data on fish and fish uses among 35 communities in four Amazonian rivers. Although we have not been working with contamination or ecotoxicology, we would like to develop partnerships with interested institutions to develop research on fish contamination by heavy metals, pesticides and other contaminants. Some rivers in the Brazilian Amazon have potential contamination sources from mining (mercury, Hg) or runofff from the agrigulture, but the contamination of fish and to which extent contaminated fish woudl be used by local people are poorly known for most sites. Besides contamination levels of fish, we could also evaluate fish uses by people and perceptions of local people on fish contamination and environmental changes. We can offer our expertise and skills on fish sampling, fisheries studies and interviews with local people, besides a data base we already have on fish and fish uses for 4 Amazonian rivers: Tapajós, Negro, Tocantins and Trombetas. We think on a comparative project, checking the contamination levels along a contamination gradient (distances from a contamination source, e.g. mining site) and/or comparing rivers with distinct contamination levels. We could also check to which extent contamination has affected fish and fishers inside protected áreas in these rivers.
UFRGS is one of the largest and leading universities in Brazil, especially regarding the courses of Biological Sciences. Our laboratory of Human Ecology and Fish Ecology is part of the Department of Ecology, at the Institute of Biological Sciences. The graduate course in Ecology is among the best ones in Brazil and both myself and most of my research team participate in this graduate course as professor and students.
There follows also links to websites of our recent projects in the Brazilian Amazon:
http://www.trackingchange.ca/
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/PEER/PGA_167652
https://www.researchgate.net/project/Linking-sustainability-of-small-scale-fisheries-fishers-knowledge-conservation-and-co-management-of-biodiversity-in-large-rivers-of-the-Brazilian-Amazon?
This link is to a short vídeo about one of our projects and most data shown in the vídeo remains to be published.
https://stemforall2019.videohall.com/presentations/1640
OBS: I am in Canada as a visiting professor, that’s why my phone number s from Canada, not Brazil.