Extensão do Centro de Ecologia Funcional da Universidade de Coimbra na Universidade Aberta | Artigos em revistas internacionais / Papers in international journals
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- Climate change mitigation and adaptation in practicePublication . Leal Filho, Walter; Kovaleva, Marina; Dinis, Maria Alzira Pimenta; Luetz, Johannes M.; Alves, Fátima; Nagy, Gustavo J.; Yaffa, Sidat; Ayal, Desalegn Yayeh; Kalungu, JokastahClimate change represents one of the most pressing global challenges, with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems, economies, and societies. Driven primarily by human activities, notably fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, climate change has led to rising global temperatures, increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and significant disruptions to natural systems. These impacts pose serious risks to biodiversity, food security, water availability, public health, and economic stability. Addressing this multifaceted challenge requires an integrated approach that combines both mitigation and adaptation strategies. Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Practice brings together interdisciplinary research, case studies, and applied solutions that explore these complementary pathways. The volume examines strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing carbon sequestration, and implementing adaptive measures across key sectors, including agriculture, energy, urban planning, and water management. Emphasising real-world applications and collaborative approaches, the book highlights successful examples of climate action and underscores the role of scientific, policy, and social innovation in building resilience. By integrating technical solutions with governance and policy frameworks, this volume provides students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with critical insights and practical tools to support transformative climate action towards a more sustainable and socially just future.
- Future and nature stakeholder integration in climate deliberationPublication . Alves, Fátima; Vidal, Diogo Guedes; Bentz, J.; Ristić Trajković, J.Traditional participatory approaches are insufficient to handle the complexity of growing climate difficulties and threats to socioecological balance (Darwish et al., 2023). There is an increasing need to broaden climate discourse by including vulnerable and excluded social groups and conceptualizing how to merge nature representatives with future generations. Inclusive discussion increases the effectiveness of solving climate issues by relying on a diverse variety of information, experiences, and expertise, as well as embracing the interests and concerns of all impacted parties, including those who are not currently present (Vidal & Alves, 2024).
- Sea-level rise implication for human mobility: policy analysis for MoroccoPublication . Fernandes, Carla Sofia Ferreira; Alves, FátimaNeste trabalho, Sofia Fernandes e Fátima Alves do Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People & the Planet, Laboratório Associado Terra da Universidade de Coimbra, e da sua Extensão na Universidade Aberta de Portugal, analisam como Marrocos está a reconhecer os impactos da subida do nível do mar, ao mesmo tempo em que as políticas públicas ainda não articulam estes riscos com estratégias de mobilidade humana, de planeamento territorial ou de proteção das comunidades mais vulneráveis. É um tema urgente e cada vez mais central para compreender as ligações entre as alterações climáticas, a adaptação e a justiça social.
- Protocol Registration. Climate Change and Health. Intercultural dialogue strategies between primary-care physicians and patients: a systematic reviewPublication . Ponte, Nidia; Alves, Fátima; Vidal, Diogo GuedesThis systematic review aims to map and understand the intercultural dialogue strategies developed between primary healthcare doctors and users from different socio-cultural backgrounds, in the context of the health impacts of climate change. The aim is to identify how these strategies have been conceptualised and described in the literature, and to what extent they can promote community resilience and reduce health inequalities. The rationale for this review lies in the recognition that climate change is a major global threat to public health, with disproportionate effects on socioeconomically and culturally vulnerable populations. At the same time, health systems—particularly at the primary-care level—face persistent challenges in responding equitably to the needs of increasingly diverse communities. While intercultural communication is acknowledged as a key dimension of care quality, its role in climate-sensitive health adaptation remains poorly understood and insufficiently integrated into public health planning. The protocol has been developed in line with PRISMA-P and PRISMA-S guidelines and is also registered with PROSPERO (ID: CRD420251038912). All supporting materials will be made publicly available via this OSF project.
- Climate change and health: intercultural dialogue strategies between primary-care physicians and patients : a systematic reviewPublication . Ponte, Nidia; Alves, Fátima; Vidal, Diogo GuedesClimate change represents one of the most serious global threats to public health, with growing impacts on morbidity, mortality and health inequalities. These effects are not evenly distributed, and people and communities in greater social and cultural vulnerability are generally the most affected. At the same time, health services face growing challenges related to the socio-cultural diversity of their users, especially in primary health care, where the first contact with the system is established. Although the scientific literature recognises the importance of intercultural communication in the quality of care, there remains a critical gap in research that systematically explores how intercultural dialogue strategies have been thought through and applied in the context of the health impacts of climate change. Most existing studies treat these dimensions - healthcare, intercultural dialogue and climate change - in a fragmented way, without considering their intersection or combined effects on equity and community resilience. This fragmentation requires the review to be conducted based on three thematic blocks linked to each other: healthcare, intercultural dialogue and climate change. This mapping by blocks will make it possible to identify the existing contributions in each axis separately, and then explore their convergences, gaps and potential for integration. Recognising this dispersion, this review takes a critical and reflexive approach from the outset, seeking to build an analytical cartography of the field, sensitive to the methodological and epistemological diversity of the studies included. This review is link to the registered https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/AXYDW.
- Sustainable futures: from causes of environmental degradation to solutionsPublication . Fernandes, Carla Sofia Ferreira; Alves, FátimaThe impacts of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution influence the living experiences of the various members of communities that rely on agriculture, shaping the adaptation responses to those phenomena and actions towards sustainable development. This study aims to understand how members of rural communities in Morocco perceive the causes of environmental degradation and the solutions meant to support the reduction of the vulnerabilities by applying a sustainable development lens. To achieve those objectives, this empirical study collects qualitative data by conducting semi-structured interviews on the local population’s perceptions of environmental degradation causes and impacts, vulnerabilities, and solutions to adapt or cope with those impacts. The study includes a critical analysis of the proposals presented by the community members by addressing the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of their implications for development. The most common issue identified was water management, underscoring the water stress affecting several regions. However, several solutions presented would lead to further depletion of non-renewable water sources, which endangers the pursuit of genuinely sustainable development. The study’s conclusions highlight the importance of contextualising the communication and adaptation responses that address local perceptions, namely the low prevalence of perceptions attributing anthropogenic causes to environmental degradation, leading to sentiments of helplessness among members of the rural communities.
- Policy Brief 8/2024. Internal remittances and climate resilience in Morocco: the invisible hand and feedsPublication . Fernandes, Carla Sofia Ferreira; Alves, FátimaEste documento analisa o papel das remessas internas na resiliência climática em Marrocos, um tema frequentemente negligenciado, mas crucial para compreender os impactos socioeconómicos das alterações climáticas e as dinâmicas de migração interna. Principais Destaques: - Importância das remessas internas no apoio a comunidades rurais. - Impacto na resiliência climática e na adaptação às alterações ambientais. - Recomendações de políticas públicas para promover o papel positivo das remessas.
- Editorial. Possible nature(s) in urban spaces: plurality and agency to tackle socio-ecological challengesPublication . Vidal, Diogo Guedes; Alves, Fátima; Menezes, Marluci; Galo, Edumundo; Tomé, PedroEste número especial procurou promover uma reflexão aprofundada sobre novas maneiras de entender a natureza nas cidades, desafiando a visão tradicional que a vê como um cenário passivo. Foram reunidas contribuições que destacam a natureza como um agente ativo, capaz de transformar as cidades em espaços mais sustentáveis e resilientes. A editorial enfatiza a necessidade de incluir múltiplas vozes e saberes, reconhecendo a importância das interdependências entre naturezas, sociedades e culturas. Somente assim será possível imaginar futuros urbanos mais justos e adaptativos para enfrentar os desafios socioecológicos.
- Nature at the heart of ecological transition: Five ideas to allow a plural, reflexive, intercultural, transnational, ecological,and dynamic citizenshipPublication . Alves, Fátima; Vidal, Diogo Guedes; Allegretti, Giovanni; Gallo, Edmundo; Castro, Hermano Albuquerque de; Freitas, HelenaTo change the course of traditional citizen participation towards ecological transition (ET) and to promote a sustainable transformation of social systems, it is necessary to implement a transformative policy that is based on a deep understanding of the territories in their biophysical, socioeconomic, and cultural dimensions. This policy should incorporate and articulate a plurality of knowledge, technologies, powers, and local positions. In this paper, we propose five ideas inspired by initiatives and examples from around the world to promote plural, reflexive, intercultural, transnational, ecological, and dynamic citizenship, which may foster a fair and inclusive ET. This scenario aims to envision alternative modes of social organization to anticipate ecologically and globally equitable futures.
- Bridging the gap between field experiments and machine learning: the EC H2020 B-GOOD Project as a case study towards automated predictive health monitoring of honey bee coloniesPublication . Van Dooremalen, Coby; Ulgezen, Zeynep N.; Dall’Olio, Raffaele; Godeau, Ugoline; Duan, Xiaodong; Sousa, José Paulo; Schäfer, Marc O.; Beaurepaire, Alexi; Van Gennip, Pim; Schoonman, Marten; Flener, Claude; Matthijs, Severine; Claeys Boúúaert, David; Verbeke, Wim; Freshley, Dana; Valkenburg, Dirk-Jan; Van Den Bosch, Trudy; Schaafsma, Famke; Peters, Jeroen; Xu, Mang; Le Conte, Yyes; Alaux, Cedric; Dalmon, Anne; Paxton, Robert J.; Tehel, Anja; Streicher, Tabea; Dezmirean, Daniel S.; Giurgiu, Alexandru I.; Topping, Christopher J.; Williams, James Henty; Capela, Nuno; Lopes, Sara; Alves, Fátima; Alves, Joana; et al.; Alves, FátimaHoney bee colonies have great societal and economic importance. The main challenge that beekeepers face is keeping bee colonies healthy under ever-changing environmental conditions. In the past two decades, beekeepers that manage colonies of Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) have become increasingly concerned by the presence of parasites and pathogens affecting the bees, the reduction in pollen and nectar availability, and the colonies’ exposure to pesticides, among others. Hence, beekeepers need to know the health condition of their colonies and how to keep them alive and thriving, which creates a need for a new holistic data collection method to harmonize the flow of information from various sources that can be linked at the colony level for different health determinants, such as bee colony, environmental, socioeconomic, and genetic statuses. For this purpose, we have developed and implemented the B-GOOD (Giving Beekeeping Guidance by computational-assisted Decision Making) project as a case study to categorize the colony’s health condition and find a Health Status Index (HSI). Using a 3-tier setup guided by work plans and standardized protocols, we have collected data from inside the colonies (amount of brood, disease load, honey harvest, etc.) and from their environment (floral resource availability). Most of the project’s data was automatically collected by the BEEP Base Sensor System. This continuous stream of data served as the basis to determine and validate an algorithm to calculate the HSI using machine learning. In this article, we share our insights on this holistic methodology and also highlight the importance of using a standardized data language to increase the compatibility between different current and future studies. We argue that the combined management of big data will be an essential building block in the development of targeted guidance for beekeepers and for the future of sustainable beekeeping.