Home - PELD Oceanic Islands

PELD-ILOC (Long Term Ecological Research of Brazilians Oceanic Islands) is a network of Brazilian scientists from several universities and organizations engaged in long-term ecological research of marine biodiversity on the four Brazilian oceanic islands. The network unites researchers to monitoring the marine wildlife all around the St. Peter and St. Paul’s Archipelago, Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Rocas Atoll and Trindade Island and Martin Vaz Archipelago since 2013. Gaining these long-term knowledge, PELD-ILOC plays a fundamental role in understanding oceanic islands ecosystems and thereby provide the prerequisites for knowledge-based solutions to many current and future environmental problems. The goal of the PELD-ILOC is to provide long-term research to the scientific community, policy makers, and society with the knowledge and predictive understanding necessary to conserve, protect, and manage the Brazilian oceanic islands ecosystems, their biodiversity, and the services they provide.

Mission

Brazil has four tropical oceanic islands: St. Peter and St. Paul’s Archipelago, Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Rocas Atoll and Trindade Island and Martin Vaz Archipelago. These islands are geographically highly isolated, experience less harming human-driven impacts than the costal area and encompass different levels of protection. Therefore, these more pristine islands represent a fundamental reservoir of marine biodiversity not only to the country but to the whole world. However, the Brazilian oceanic islands remain unknown to the majority of the population. Our mission is to increase the awareness and interest among Brazil’s population, providing knowledge to support governmental decisions and thereby help to protect and preserve the diversity, manifoldness and health of the unique marine ecosystems of our oceanic islands.

The goal of PELD-ILOC

Our objective is to understand how ecosystem structures of reef communities at the four Brazilian oceanic islands change under the variety of human-driven impact, such as fishing, pollution or climate change. Hence, PELD – ILOC monitors the Brazilian oceanic islands to continuously assess the dynamics of reef communities and populations and the processes driving these dynamics. More specifically, we aim to evaluate.

reef fish assemblage structure
benthic community structure
coral reef index
population dynamics of the Aratu crab (Grapsus grapsus)
genetic diversity and temporal variation of the zooxanthellae hosted by the corals
effects of fish on benthic communities
diversity and abundance of cryptic invertebrates including sea urchins
detection of toxic dinoflagellates
deep fish fauna using Baited Remote Underwater Videos (BRUVs).