MARE Researchers Distinguished at the Oceanography Meeting 2026
Sesimbra hosted, on May 21 and 22, the Biennial Oceanography Meeting organised by the Portuguese Association of Oceanography (APOCEAN), in an edition MARE will not forget: researcher Maria Cadima, a MARE PhD student at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL), was awarded the APOCEAN Student Award, and MARE | ARNET researcher and FCUL professor Fátima Sousa was honoured as a co-founder of the association.
The meeting brought together 74 participants, including 47 researchers and 21 students, in an intense programme of scientific exchange and interdisciplinary debate. Over two days, several MARE members contributed their work to a collective discussion spanning physical and biological oceanography, palaeoclimatology, and operational oceanography.
The meeting's top distinction went to Maria Cadima, whose work investigates the mechanisms behind the recent increase in salinity in the western tropical Atlantic and the potential role of the large-scale circulation associated with the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which regulates Europe's climate. Using a three-dimensional Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis applied to 30 years of data, the study demonstrated the importance of subsurface advective processes associated with the North Brazil Undercurrent in driving decadal salinity variability in the region.
Fátima Sousa was honoured for her scientific career and decisive contribution to oceanography in Portugal. Her most recent work focuses on thermohaline changes in the Eastern North Atlantic Central Water (ENACW) in the NE Atlantic, and their implications for larger-scale shifts in North Atlantic circulation, a topic of growing relevance in the context of climate change.
Catarina V. Guerreiro, a MARE | ARNET researcher, presented two studies on atmosphere-ocean interactions and the role of plankton in marine biogeochemical cycles. The results address the impact of atmospheric dust deposition on ocean productivity and coccolithophore communities, based on data collected across the Atlantic Ocean during the AMT28 expedition.
Recent MARE PhD graduate Beatriz Biguino shared her research in which she used the Delft3D modelling suite to study how climate change may affect temperature and salinity in the Sado Estuary, combining historical simulations with future projections under different climate scenarios.
The meeting closed with the promise to return in the first semester of 2028, giving oceanography and those who dedicate themselves to it the recognition it deserves.
Text by: Patrícia Chaves
Photographs: APOCEAN