Heliana Teixeira is a marine benthic ecologist, with a PhD in Biology, specialty Ecology from University of Coimbra (PT), with training at University of Murcia (SP), AZTI Foundation (SP) and Southern California Coastal Water Research Project SCCWRP (USA). Since 2016, she is an assistant researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and the Dept. Biology at the University of Aveiro (PT), leading the Ecosystem Management and Conservation Research Group. In the past she worked at the IMAR Marine Research Institute (PT) and the EU COM JRC Joint Research Centre (IT). Her research focuses on environmental quality assessment, investigating pressure-response relationships to reverse the negative impacts of anthropogenic disturbances, namely of biological invasions and climate change, in coastal and marine ecosystems. She has particular interest in the use and development of ecological indicators and assessment tools and on the mobilisation of biodiversity FAIR data through public repositories. Her interests also include socio-ecological research for understanding biodiversity links to ecosystem services, using participatory processes to engage stakeholders and integrate local ecological knowledge. Long experience in international expert groups on the domains of Water and Marine Strategy, with several studies highlighted as relevant Science for Policy denoted in her Sage Policy profile. Currently she is part of the EU Water Directive ECOSTAT WG on nutrients and other physical-chemical elements in support of good ecological status, and of COST Action InsectAI Using Image-based AI for Insect Monitoring & Conservation. She also collaborates with the EU COM JRC for developing research tools for non-indigenous and invasive species and with LifeWatch ERIC, through PORBIOTA the Portuguese e-Infrastructure for Information and Research on Biodiversity. She participated in more than 20 R&D projects, co-authoring many scientific publications as well as books, guidance and technical reports. She currently participates in HEU projects GES4SEAS (2022-26) and B-CUBED (2023-26) and collaborates in the HEU projects A-AAGORA, RESTORE4C’s, REDRESS and LIFE SeaGrassRIAwild. She is an active member of InvECO the Portuguese network for the study and management of invasive alien species of the Portuguese Ecological Society, and Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Marine Science in Marine Ecosystems Ecology. ORCID iD 0000-0001-8525-9967.
