Department: Working Group Coordinators

Olga Ameixa is an ecologist with a PhD in Biology, specialisation in Ecosystem Biology from the University of South Bohemia (CZ). Since 2023, she has been an Assistant Researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and the Department of Biology at the University of Aveiro (PT). In the past, worked as a researcher at the Global Change Research Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. During that period, she participated in several international and national projects (CZ).
Her research focuses on insect biodiversity and ecology, and its role in ecosystem services, particularly in response to environmental changes such as biological invasions and land use changes. She applies frameworks like CICES to evaluate and develop indicators of insect-mediated ecosystem services.
She has an extensive experience in biodiversity monitoring and over the past years has unravel several new invertebrate records for the Portuguese coast and some for Iberian Peninsula, in the Ria de Aveiro salt marsh area.
She has led and contributed to projects on nature-based solutions, including phytoremediation, biological control, pollination, and biomass production. She has been Principal Investigator in RESTORE (CNRS-FR), SUShI (FCT-PT), and REGREEN (PT), and a team member in PORBIOTA (LifeWatch PT node), LAGOONS (EU-FP7), and POLLINATE (FCT-PT).
Between 2016 and 2017, worked as Invited Assistant Professor of Entomology and Ecology at the University of Aveiro. Currently, teaches Biodiversity and Terrestrial Ecology, Urban ecology and supervises multiple PhD, MSc, and undergraduate students.
She is an active member of international research networks, serving as national delegate and working group leader in the COST Actions Insect-IMP and GIN-TONIC. From 2019 to 2022, she convened the IOBC/WPRS Working Group on Biological Control Agents. She also a member of the EKLIPSE Knowledge Coordination Body and contributes to the eLTER-PT Ria de Aveiro site. ORCID: 0000-0002-5422-1090

João Pedro Martins Coelho is a biologist, MsC in Ecology (2004, Coimbra University) and PhD in Chemistry (2009, Aveiro University). He is, since 2018, an Assistant Researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and the Department of Biology at the University of Aveiro (PT).
The main research focus throughout his career has been the influence of human pressures in transitional aquatic ecosystems, ranging from nutrient and contaminant biogeochemistry, bioaccumulation and trophic transfer, population dynamics or the effect of climate change and invasive species on the equilibrium of estuaries and coastal lagoons. 20 years working on various aspects of a recovering, historically contaminated estuarine system originated the awareness on the importance of ecosystem restoration, namely through nature-based solutions. He coordinated two projects (RemediGrass (FCT) and Remoliço (MAR2020)) aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of using seagrass re-colonization as an innovative nature-based solution to accelerate the recovery of degraded systems. He is currently involved in 4 European projects focussed on ecosystem restoration (three HEU projects, AA-AGORA, Restore4Cs, ReWrite and an Interreg, CAPTA) and coordinates project LIFE SeagrassRIAwild (EU – LIFE Programme) which aims to develop seagrass mariculture to enable large-scale seagrass restoration. ORCID: 0000-0003-1975-8308.

Full Professor at the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, and coordinator of the BIOME Lab (BIOdiversity and MacroEcology). I am Botanist and ecologist with research activities focusing species diversity patterns within the frame of biogeography, biodiversity assessment and conservation biology. My research mission is to understand the patterns and processes of species coexistence in relation to the spatial and temporal scales and to improve the approaces adopted for biodiversity conservation. My management approach is to promote a community-based decision making for strategic development. I like to collaborate with a broad spectrum of espertises, in the frame of theoretical, empirical and applied research projects, within a friendly environment and exchange culture. I consider Science as a contribution to a better world, peaceful and healthy for the human beings and the other organisms living on the Earth.

Dr Jan Reubens is senior with more than 13 years’ experience within the fields of biologging, movement ecology and animal tracking and has been tagging and tracking a wide range of species. He has been participating in many national and international research projects and projects with industrial partners, chaired a COST Action (CA18102) and is currently the chair of the European Tracking Network. Jan has expertise in both scientific and logistic support in animal tracking studies, environmental monitoring, biostatistics and scientific diving.

I’m trained as a marine biologist (MSc in Biology & MSc in Marine and Lacustrine Sciences) at the University of Ghent (Belgium). I’m a project manager at the Data Centre division of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) (Belgium), where I’m running the MarineLife+ programme.

I coordinate the Aphia database infrastructure (which includes the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), the European Ocean Biodiversity Information System (EurOBIS), the Interim Register of Marine and Non-Marine Genera (IRMNG) and the LifeWatch Species Information Backbone. I’m also involved in the EMODnet Biology project, as lead of the work package on data management and I’m the current chair of the Global Team of Catalogue of Life (CoL).

The MarineLife+ programme focuses on the interactions between these databases, on quality control and quality assurance, on how scientists can help in making them more complete and on how scientists and the public at large can make use of these systems. In addition, there is a focus on data exchanges and active collaborations with external databases, to widen the scope of and awareness for these initiatives. MarineLife+ groups activities on taxonomic, biogeographic and traits databases that are developed, hosted and maintained by VLIZ.