MARE partners with recreational marinas for transatlantic study on monitoring invasive alien species

Romeu Ribeiro has secured a partnership with the Lisbon Port Authority, Marina Porto Atlântico and Marina de Portimão to monitor invasive alien species as part of his PhD research.

The initiative began in late June, with the placement of small PVC plates suspended from the pontoons of the recreational marinas in Leixões, Alcântara and Portimão, to monitor the arrival of these species, which are transported in ballast water or attached to the hulls of commercial and recreational vessels. The structures will remain in place for 3 months, allowing natural recruitment and colonisation by fouling organisms present in the water column.

Romeu Ribeiro will subsequently analyse and quantify these organisms through both direct observation and DNA analysis. The student, who started his PhD at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL) in October 2025, is supervised by MARE/ARNET researcher Paula Chainho, researcher Sofia Duarte, from the Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA) at the University of Minho, and researcher Gregory Ruiz, from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC, USA).

The methodology will be replicated next year, this time in recreational marinas in the United States of America, to create a standardized monitoring strategy for alien species worldwide.

The results obtained through this initiative aim to contribute to a better understanding of the biodiversity associated with Portuguese marinas, as well as to the monitoring of non-indigenous species with potential ecological and economic impact, providing relevant information for the management and conservation of coastal ecosystems.

Invasive alien species are one of the greatest threats to the maintenance of biodiversity in marine ecosystems, and their global monitoring is one of the major scientific challenges today.

Text by: Patrícia Chaves
Photos: Romeu Ribeiro, Paula Chainho and team