The BALA project: A pioneering monitoring of Azorean forest invertebrates over two decades (1999-2022).

Globally, there is a concerning decline in many insect populations, and this trend likely extends to all arthropods, potentially impacting unique island biota. Native non-endemic and endemic species on islands are under threat due to habitat destruction, with the introduction of exotic, and potentially invasive, species, further contributing to this decline. While long-term studies of plants and vertebrate fauna are available, long-term arthropod datasets are limited, hindering comparisons with better-studied taxa. The Biodiversity of Arthropods of the Laurisilva of the Azores (BALA) project has allowed gathering comprehensive data since 1997 in the Azorean Islands (Portugal), using standardised sampling methods across islands. The dataset includes arthropod counts from epigean (pitfall traps) and canopy-dwelling (beating samples) communities, enriched with species information, biogeographic origins, and IUCN categories. Metadata associated with the sample protocol and events, like sample identifier, archive number, sampled tree species, and trap type are also recorded. The database is available in multiple formats, including Darwin Core, which facilitates the ecological analysis of pressing environmental concerns, such as arthropod population declines and biological invasions.

Age assessment in unaccompanied minors: assessing uniformity of protocols across Europe.

Age assessment of migrants is crucial, particularly for unaccompanied foreign minors, a population facing legal, social, and humanitarian challenges. Despite existing guidelines, there is no unified protocol in Europe for age assessment.The Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe (FASE) conducted a comprehensive questionnaire to understand age estimation practices in Europe. The questionnaire had sections focusing on the professional background of respondents, annual assessment numbers, requesting parties and reasons, types of examinations conducted (e.g., physical, radiological), followed protocols, age estimation methods, and questions on how age estimates are reported.The questionnaire's findings reveal extensive engagement of the forensic community in age assessment in the living, emphasizing multidisciplinary approaches. However, there seems to be an incomplete appreciation of AGFAD guidelines. Commonalities exist in examination methodologies and imaging tests. However, discrepancies emerged among respondents regarding sexual maturity assessment and reporting assessment results. Given the increasing importance of age assessment, especially for migrant child protection, the study stresses the need for a unified protocol across European countries. This can only be achieved if EU Member States wholeheartedly embrace the fundamental principles outlined in EU Directives and conduct medical age assessments aligned with recognized standards such as the AGFAD guidelines.

The effects of exogenous substances on the color of heated bones.

OBJECTIVES: Burned bone coloration has been used for decades to help in the bioanthropological analysis of burned human bones. However, there is a variety of factors that can interfere with the coloration manifested by bones exposed to heat, resulting in colors that differ from the usual black to white gradient. In this study, we evaluated possible causes of unusual coloration changes and hues in burned bone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For that purpose, defleshed fresh pig (Sus scrofa) ribs as well as fresh and dry human clavicles were burned at four different temperatures (500, 700, 900 and 1100°C) in contact with different materials (CaO, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, and polyester cloth). Observable color changes were assessed through naked eye observation and description, Munsell color charts, and reflectance spectrophotometry. Additionally, chemical changes in bone were assessed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy in attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF). RESULTS: Our results showed that some materials did affect usual burned bone coloration (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn) and correspondent FTIR-ATR and XRF spectra. As for other materials, although no effect on visual bone coloration was observed, they still affected FTIR-ATR and XRF spectra (CaO and cloth). DISCUSSION: This study can contribute to the anthropological analysis of burned human remains, providing some answers to what can cause unusual types of heat-induced colorations.

All that glitters is not gold: X-ray fluorescence analysis of a fixed dental prosthesis from Colecção de Esqueletos Identificados Século XXI, Portugal (CEI/XXI).

Access to better health care anticipates that more medical devices can be found alongside skeletal remains. Those employed in oral rehabilitation, with available brands or batch/series, can prove useful in the identification process. A previous study in the Colecção de Esqueletos Identificados Século XXI described macroscopically the dental prostheses. An unusual case of a dental device with chromatic alterations demonstrated to require a more detailed analysis. The individual, a 53-year-old male, exhibited, at both arches, a fixed tooth-supported rehabilitation, with gold colouring classified initially as a gold-palladium alloy. Simultaneously, a green pigmentation deposit was observable in bone and prosthesis. This investigation aimed to verify the elemental composition of the dental prosthesis alloy. Elemental analysis was performed by X-ray fluorescence in two regions (labial surface of the prosthetic crown and the root surface of the lower right lateral incisor). Both the spectra and the qualitative results found higher levels of copper and aluminium, followed by nickel, iron, zinc, and manganese. No gold or palladium was detected. The most probable assumption is that a copper-aluminium alloy was used, as its elemental concentration corresponds to those measured in similar devices. Dental prostheses of copper-aluminium alloys have been made popular since the 1980s, particularly in the USA, Japan, and Eastern Europe. Apart from the biographical information, it was also known that the individual's place of birth was an Eastern European country, which highlighted the usefulness of this type of information when dealing with missing people cases.

Luminol and the postmortem interval estimation - influence of taphonomic factors.

The estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) is one of the key challenges for forensic anthropologists. Although there are several methods referenced for this purpose, none is sufficiently effective. One of the main reasons justifying the complexity of this task is the influence of several taphonomic factors.The study of the Luminol technique has stood out as a promising method for estimating PMI, complementing the existing methods, since it is an economic, easy and reproducible method that operates as a presumptive test. However, it is not known which taphonomic factors can influence the results obtained by this technique.The aim of this study is to test the influence of taphonomic factors, such as temperature, humidity, soil type and pH, on the estimation of the PMI by the Luminol technique.In order to test the influence of the referred factors, a sample consisting of 30 clavicles, with known and similar PMI, collected from autopsies, was distributed as evenly as possible by six vases and buried with different decomposition conditions for a period of 12 months. After the exhumation and sample preparation, the Luminol technique was applied.It was possible to clearly observe differences in the results. Thus, according to our research, it is possible to conclude that the results obtained by the application of Luminol are influenced by taphonomic factors. Therefore, the context in which a body is found should always be considered for applying this technique.

Vertical Slot Fishways: Incremental Knowledge to Define the Best Solution.

River artificial fragmentation is arguably the most imperilling threat for freshwater-dependent fish species. Fish need to be able to freely move along river networks as not only spawning grounds but also refuge and feeding areas may be spatially and temporally separated. This incapacity of free displacement may result in genetic depletion of some populations, density reduction and even community changes, which may in turn affect how meta-community balances are regulated, potentially resulting in functional resilience reduction and ecosystem processes' malfunction. Fishways are the most common and widely used method to improve connectivity for fish species. These structures allow fish to negotiate full barriers, thus reducing their connectivity impairment. Among all technical fishway types, vertical slot fishways (VSF) are considered to be the best solution, as they remain operational even with fluctuating water discharges and allow fish to negotiate each cross-wall at their desired depth. In the present study, we collected both published and original data on fish experiments within VSF, to address two questions, (1) What variables affect fish passage during experimental fishway studies? and (2) What is the best VSF configuration? We used Bayesian Generalized Mixed Models accounting for random effects of non-controlled factors, limiting inherent data dependencies, that may influence the model outcome. Results highlight that fish size, regardless of the species, is a good predictor of fishway negotiation success. Generally, multiple slot fishways with one orifice proved to be the best solution. Future work should be focused on small-sized fish to further improve the design of holistic fishways.

E se a catástrofe acontece .. Que preparação dos enfermeiros do serviço de urgência / What if disaster strikes..... How prepared are emergency room nurses?

O progresso nos cuidados de saúde no decurso do tempo tem exigido, não só, processos cada vez mais complexos, bem como a formação de profissionais com níveis de competência e conhecimento progressivamente mais elevados, no sentido de corresponderem com maior exatidão ao aumento gradual das suas funções e responsabilidades. Neste contexto, a Enfermagem converte-se numa disciplina mais complexa e altamente exigente em cuidados especializados impondo o desenvolvimento contínuo dos seus profissionais. O presente relatório insere-se no âmbito do Estágio de Natureza Profissional (ENP) do Curso de Mestrado em Enfermagem Médico-Cirúrgica (MEMC), realizado num Serviço de Urgência Básica (SUB) da região norte de Portugal e procura evidenciar de forma crítica e reflexiva o percurso e o processo de aquisição e desenvolvimento de competências especializadas em Enfermagem Médico-Cirúrgica na área da Pessoa em Situação Crítica (EMCPSC). Para o desenvolvimento de competências procurou basear-se a prática clínica na evidência científica e alcançar o máximo de experiências que incorporassem as dimensões da prestação de cuidados à PSC e família, da formação, da gestão e da investigação. A preparação dos profissionais de saúde para atuarem em situações de exceção e catástrofe que originam multivítimas, inclui atividades, programas e sistemas desenvolvidos e implementados antes do evento. A pandemia recentemente enfrentada mostrou muito claramente a velocidade com que mesmo os melhores sistemas de saúde em diferentes países podem ser sobrecarregados e devastados. A evidência científica demonstra que o atual sistema de formação não promove as competências necessárias e não prepara os profissionais de saúde para a resposta a eventos catastróficos. Estas constatações conduziram-nos à investigação da perceção dos enfermeiros do SUB sobre a sua preparação para intervir em situação de catástrofe, com recurso à Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool (DPET®), através de um estudo descritivo-correlacional. Verificou-se que os enfermeiros assinalaram uma fraca preparação para atuar em situação de catástrofe. Contudo, os elementos do sexo masculino revelaram maior perceção de preparação face à situação de catástrofe comparativamente com os do sexo feminino, tendo apresentado diferenças estatisticamente significativas no score global da escala, na dimensão das competências relacionadas com o "saber" e a "gestão pós-catástrofe". Também nestas dimensões comprovaram-se diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre o nível de perceção da preparação para a catástrofe em função da formação avançada desenvolvida na área da emergência, sendo que, os enfermeiros detentores de formação avançada em áreas onde há alusão a atendimento em catástrofe apresentaram valores médios superiores para a perceção de preparação. Atentando à minimização das consequências impactantes que a catástrofe acarreta, é vital que haja uma crescente preparação para este tipo de ocorrências, minimizando erros e agilizando a atuação das equipas envolvidas. Para que o Plano de Emergência em Catástrofe (PEC) hospitalar seja executado de forma eficaz é necessário que cada profissional (particularmente, o enfermeiro) conheça a sua missão, o seu papel e a sua ação, de modo a desempenhar as suas funções de forma sistemática e coordenada. Desta experiência, destaca-se o papel preponderante do Enfermeiro Especialista em Enfermagem Médico-Cirúrgica (EEEMC) na diferenciação e melhoria contínua dos cuidados de Enfermagem, na promoção da consciencialização da importância da formação ao longo da vida e do trabalho em equipa, na gestão e organização dos serviços de saúde e dos cuidados de Enfermagem e na investigação, num contexto tão complexo como um SU.

Progress in healthcare over time has required not only increasingly complex processes, but also the training of professionals with progressively higher levels of competence and knowledge, in order to correspond more accurately to the gradual increase in their functions and responsibilities. In this context, nursing becomes a more complex and highly demanding discipline in terms of specialized care, imposing the continuous development of its professionals. This report is part of the Professional Internship of the Master's Course in Medical-Surgical Nursing, carried out in a basic emergency service in the north of Portugal and seeks to critically and reflectively highlight the path and process of acquisition and development of specialized skills in Medical-Surgical Nursing in the area of the person in critical situation. For the development of competences, efforts were made to base clinical practice on scientific evidence and to achieve the maximum of experiences that incorporated the dimensions of providing care to the person in critical situation and family, training, management and research. The preparation of health professionals to act in exceptional and catastrophic situations that lead to multiple casualties includes activities, programs and systems developed and implemented before the event. The recently faced pandemic has shown very clearly the speed with which even the best health systems in different countries can be overwhelmed and devastated. Scientific evidence shows that the current training system does not promote the necessary skills and does not prepare health professionals to respond to catastrophic events. These findings led us to investigate the perception of basic emergency service nurses about their preparation to intervene in a catastrophe situation, using the Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool (DPET®), through a descriptive-correlational study. It was verified that the nurses indicated a weak preparation to act in a catastrophe situation. However, the male elements revealed a greater perception of preparedness in the face of a catastrophe situation compared to the female ones, having shown statistically significant differences in the overall score and in the dimension of competences related to "knowledge", "post-disaster management". Also, in these dimensions, there were statistically significant differences between the level of perception of preparedness for a catastrophe as a function of the advanced training developed in the emergency area, and nurses with advanced training in areas where there is an allusion to care in a catastrophe had higher mean values for the perception of preparedness. Bearing in mind the minimization of the impacting consequences that the catastrophe entails, it is vital that there is increasing preparation for this type of occurrence, minimizing errors and streamlining the performance of the teams involved. For the hospital disaster emergency plan to be carried out effectively, it is necessary that each professional (particularly the nurse) knows his mission, his role and his action, in order to perform his functions in a systematic and coordinated way. From this experience, the preponderant role of the specialist nurse in Medical-Surgical Nursing stands out in the differentiation and continuous improvement of nursing care, in promoting awareness of the importance of lifelong training and teamwork, in the management and organization of health services and nursing care and in research, in a context as complex as an emergency service

Half a century of systematic research on heat-induced colour changes in bone - A review.

Skeletal human remains presenting heat-induced changes have been a focus of study for a long time. However, there is still a long way to go for the anthropologists to be able to fully interpret and understand these changes. Heat-induced colour modifications are one of the least understood phenomena in bone, displaying a variety of exceptions (e.g., tints of yellow, orange, blue, green, pink, and red) to the expected colour variations that bone can produce when exposed to high temperatures (i.e., ivory, brown, black, various shades of grey, and white). In addition to these, there is a lack of uniformization in the literature regarding the methods to determine the exact colourations observed and the nomenclature used, giving way to subjective descriptions. However, commitment to more objective and reliable methods is visible in more recent research. In this review, we compiled data published in the literature throughout the years to portray the state of the art regarding the potential of heat-induced colour changes for inferring the circumstances of death and the applicability of these methods in the legal framework.

Secular Trends in the Size and Shape of the Scapula among the Portuguese between the 19th and the 21st Centuries.

Potential secular changes in the human scapula are fundamentally unbeknownst, with most of the preceding anatomical studies focusing on long-term changes in the long bones and the skull. As such, the cardinal purpose of this study pertains to the evaluation of secular trends on the shape and size of the scapula in a time period spanning from the 19th to the early 21st centuries. The study sample included 211 individuals (100 males and 111 females) from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection and the 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection. The size and shape of the scapula were evaluated using geometric morphometrics. Results show secular changes over a relatively short period of time in both the shape and size of the scapula in Portuguese nationals. Shape changes were observed in both sexes but expressed minimally, while a significant negative trend in the size of the scapula was detected in males. Scapular size decrement in males conceivably echoes general trends of the overall anatomy towards a narrower body associated with higher standards of living that include enhanced nutrition and universal healthcare, among other factors.

European river typologies fail to capture diatom, fish, and macrophyte community composition.

Typology systems are frequently used in applied and fundamental ecology and are relevant for environmental monitoring and conservation. They aggregate ecosystems into discrete types based on biotic and abiotic variables, assuming that ecosystems of the same type are more alike than ecosystems of different types with regard to a specific property of interest. We evaluated whether this assumption is met by the Broad River Types (BRT), a recently proposed European river typology system, that classifies river segments based on abiotic variables, when it is used to group biological communities. We compiled data on the community composition of diatoms, fishes, and aquatic macrophytes throughout Europe and evaluated whether the composition is more similar in site groups with the same river type than in site groups of different river types using analysis of similarities, classification strength, typical species analysis, and the area under zeta diversity decline curves. We compared the performance of the BRT with those of four region-based typology systems, namely, Illies Freshwater Ecoregions, the Biogeographic Regions, the Freshwater Ecoregions of the World, and the Environmental Zones, as well as spatial autocorrelation (SA) classifications. All typology systems received low scores from most evaluation methods, relative to predefined thresholds and the SA classifications. The BRT often scored lowest of all typology systems. Within each typology system, community composition overlapped considerably between site groups defined by the types of the systems. The overlap tended to be the lowest for fishes and between Illies Freshwater Ecoregions. In conclusion, we found that existing broad-scale river typology systems fail to delineate site groups with distinct and compositionally homogeneous communities of diatoms, fishes, and macrophytes. A way to improve the fit between typology systems and biological communities might be to combine segment-based and region-based typology systems to simultaneously account for local environmental variation and historical distribution patterns, thus potentially improving the utility of broad-scale typology systems for freshwater biota.

Burned and buried: A vibrational spectroscopy analysis of burial-related diagenetic changes of heat-altered human bones.

OBJECTIVES: The analysis of burned human remains can be very challenging due to heat-induced alterations. Occasionally, human bones present these coupled with diagenetic changes, offering even more of a challenge, since there is a lack of studies regarding interactions between both taphonomic phenomena. With this study, we aimed to assess and document the effects of inhumation on the chemical composition of both unburned and burned human skeletal remains. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We buried, for 5 years, four groups of human bone samples comprising unburned bones and bones experimentally burned at 500, 900, and 1050 °C. Periodic exhumations were carried out to collect bone samples to be analyzed through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in attenuated total reflectance mode, in order to calculate four chemical indexes: (1) crystallinity index (CI); (2) type B carbonates to phosphate index (BPI); (3) total carbonates (A + B) to carbonate B ratio (C/C); and (4) OH to phosphate ratio (OH/P). RESULTS: After inhumation, CI and C/C of unburned bones and bones burned at 500 °C, and BPI of bones burned at 1050 °C did not vary significantly. However, the remaining indexes showed both relevant increments and reductions throughout observations, depending on burning temperature and index. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest that diagenesis can have an effect in bone's molecular composition. However, these effects do not seem to significantly affect the conclusions that can be taken from the analysis of infrared bone spectra, at least in the case of inhumations with a duration of 5 years or less.

Validation of discriminant functions from the rib necks in two Portuguese adult identified populations.

Sexual dimorphism is the basis for sex estimation research in skeletal remains, helping the positive identification of individuals in forensic backgrounds. In this regard, it has been proved that the metrical analysis of the costal neck of the first four ribs in Spanish contemporary adult skeletons shows high sexual dimorphism, especially in the first rib. However, the validation of any method developed in identified skeletal collections must be compulsorily reproduced in other skeletonized sets to verify either its potential application in individuals from other locations, or the existence of possible biases associated with inter-population variation. Due to the geographical and socioeconomic proximity between Spain and Portugal, this paper aims to check the utility of the discriminant functions designed by Partido-Navadijo et al. (2021) in the two skeletal collections of the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Results show the utility of these discriminant functions in Portuguese population, with frequencies of cases correctly assigned reaching up to 93.6% in the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection (CISC); and up to 92.6% in the 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection (CEI/XXI). However, two particularities between the Spanish and Portuguese osteological assemblages can be highlighted: the possible existence of secular changes in relation to the CISC collection (1904-1938); and a reversal in the degree of costal dimorphism, being the third and fourth ribs of the CEI/XXI collection more dimorphic than the first ones.

Toxicological Analysis of Drugs in Human Mummified Bodies and Proposed Guidelines.

From palaeopathology to forensic taphonomy, mummified human bodies constitute biological archives of paramount importance. Toxicology analysis of endobiotics and xenobiotics has already shown value to archaeological mummies research with detecting heavy metals, sedative-hypnotic drugs, and stimulants. Thanks to the large window of drug detection in hair and nails, the information from such studies has increased the scientific community's knowledge regarding past populations' lifestyles. Still, few bibliographic references exist regarding toxicology reports in mummified bodies from forensic settings. Here, the authors aim to draw attention to the valuable contribution of toxicology analysis, taking into account previously conducted studies and their findings. Given that sample collection on mummified bodies from forensic scenarios may not always happen in laboratories or autopsy rooms, the authors also suggest guidelines for in situ sampling of forensic mummies. It is expected that the present technical note will encourage experts to perform toxicology analysis in mummified bodies and publish their case reports more often.

Time burnt away: The impact of heat-induced changes on skeletal age-at-death diagnostic features.

This paper investigates the established notion that bone calcination has a major impact on age estimation while low-intensity burns have a mere negligible impact. Few systematic researches have been carried out so far about this topic so the true impact of heat-induced changes on diagnostic age features is mostly unknown. The agreement between pre-burning and post-burning observations of age features was investigated on 51 human skeletons (22 males and 29 females with ages-at-death ranging from 61 to 93 years old) subjected to experimental burns. These skeletons belong to the 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection housed at the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology of the Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. The Suchey-Brooks method based on the pubic symphysis and the method developed on the auricular surface by Buckberry and Chamberlain (2002) were scrutinized. The Suchey-Brooks method provided better agreement between pre- and post-burn observations than the method from Buckberry and Chamberlain (2002). However, it became clear that heat-induced changes affected both methods regardless of heat intensity since both calcined bones and bones burnt at lower intensities often showed less than perfect agreement. Therefore, this research demonstrates that the analysis of age-at-death can be impaired in burnt bones, even those not subjected to calcination, with clear impact for forensic and archaeological investigations.

Chemical trace XRF analysis to detect sharp force trauma in fresh and burned bone.

Forensic anthropologists may not always be able to differentiate heat-induced fractures from fractures with other aetiologies, namely sharp force traumas, with clear nefarious impact on medico-legal conclusions. The objective of this study was to experimentally investigate if blade chemical traces are transferred to defleshed bone tissue and if they remain there after a burning event. This was accomplished by prompting sharp force traumas in 20 macerated fresh pig ribs with five different instruments, namely a stainless steel knife, an artisanal knife and a ceramic kitchen knife, a small axe and a large axe. Another pig rib was used as control, not being subjected to any trauma. All instruments were probed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to establish the composition of each blade. Bone samples, both pre-burned and post-burned (at 500 °C, 700 °C, 900 °C and 1100 °C), were then probed by XRF. All sharp force instruments left detectable chemical traces on pre-burned bone, although not in all samples. Furthermore, traces were still detected after experimental burning in most cases. Potentially, XRF can provide relevant information about the aetiology of fractures in burned and unburned bones, although the effect of soft tissues and diagenesis must still be investigated.

Distinguishing thermally altered bones from debris using imaging and fluorescence spectrometry.

Bushfires and mass disasters from which result fatal fire victims are two types of events in which Forensic Anthropology acts aiding in the recovery of human remains and the identification of the victims. This is a challenging job since bones that have undergone fire-caused alterations can be unrecognizable. Therefore, collecting evidence at the scene is very important and should be thorough. To evaluate the potential of the application of optical techniques for the recovery and analysis of burnt skeletal material in forensic contexts, this exploratory study focused on analysing reflectance and luminescence properties of bone to differentiate between skeletal remains and debris. The sample includes burnt human bones, as well as non-human bones and debris (like metal, fabric, and others). The reflectance experiments revealed to be quite ineffective, not showing a response pattern that allowed for discrimination between skeletal remains and debris. Three techniques were used to detect luminescence, which included imaging (with a camera), fluorescence spectrometry, and laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (excitation: 440 nm). Luminescence results were more promising, registering a positive response for several samples, with a general consistency of results between the different methodologies. Nevertheless, burning conditions and individual characteristics (e.g., pathologies) can introduce limitations to the techniques.

SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the Natural Forest of Azores: II - A survey of exotic arthropods in disturbed forest habitats.

Background: The data we present consist of an inventory of exotic arthropods, potentially invasive, collected in exotic and mixed forests and disturbed native forest patches of the Azores Archipelago. The study was carried out between 2019 and 2020 in four islands: Corvo, Flores, Terceira and Santa Maria, where a total of 45 passive flight interception SLAM traps were deployed, during three to six consecutive months. This manuscript is the second contribution of the "SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the Natural Forest of Azores". New information: We provide an inventory of terrestrial arthropods belonging to Arachnida, Diplopoda, Chilopoda and Insecta classes from four Azorean islands. We identified a total of 21,175 specimens, belonging to 20 orders, 93 families and 249 species of arthropods. A total of 125 species are considered introduced, 89 native non-endemic and 35 endemic. We registered 34 new records (nine for Corvo, three for Flores, six for Terceira and 16 for Santa Maria), of which five are new for Azores, being all exotic possibly recently introduced: Dieckmanniellusnitidulus (Gyllenhal, 1838), Gronopsfasciatus Küster, 1851, Hadroplontustrimaculatus (Fabricius, 1775), Hypurusbertrandi (Perris, 1852) (all Coleoptera, Curculionidae) and Cardiocondylamauritanica Forel, 1890 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). This publication highlights the importance of planted forests and disturbed native forest patches as reservoirs of potentially invasive arthropods and refuges for some rare relict endemic arthropod species.

Activity, boldness and schooling in freshwater fish are affected by river salinization.

Rivers are experiencing increasing anthropogenic pressures and salinity has shown to affect freshwater fish behaviour, potentially disrupting ecological processes. In this study, the aim was to determine the sub-lethal effects of salinization on freshwater fish behaviour, using a widespread native cyprinid species, the Iberian barbel (Luciobarbus bocagei) as the model species. Behavioural trials in a mesocosms setting were performed to assess the effects of three levels of a salinity gradient - control (no salt added to the water, 0.8 mS/cm), low (9 mS/cm), and high concentration (18 mS/cm) - on fish routine activity, shoal cohesion and boldness. Upon increasing the salinity levels in the flume-channels, fish showed a significant reduction on their i) swimming activity (76% of searching behaviour in the control vs. 57% in high salinity), and ii) shoal cohesion (0.95 shoal cohesion ratio in the control vs. 0.76 in high salinity), while iii) an increase of bolder individuals, measured by a higher number of attempts to escape the altered environment (106 total jumps in the control vs. 262 in high salinity), was simultaneously observed. Behavioural changes in fish can reflect shifts in ecological condition. Thus, the behavioural responses of fish caused by salinization stress should be further researched, in addition to the interaction with other environmental stressors, in order to understand the true scope of the consequences of salinization for fish species.

SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the Natural Forest of Azores: III - Testing the impact of edge effects in a native forest of Terceira Island.

Background: The data we present are part of the long-term project "SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the Natural Forest of Azores" that started in 2012, aiming to understand the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers on Azorean native forests (Azores, Macaronesia, Portugal). The data for the current study consist in an inventory of arthropods collected in three locations of a native forest fragment at Terra-Brava protected area (Terceira, Azores, Portugal) aiming to test the impact of edge effects on Azorean arthropod communities. The three locations were: (i) the edge of the forest, closer to the pastures; (ii) an intermediate area (100 m from edge); and (iii) the deepest part of the native forest fragment (more than 300 m from edge). The study was carried out between June 2014 and December 2015. A total of nine passive flight interception SLAM (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) traps were deployed (three in each of the studied locations), during 18 consecutive months. This study provides the raw data to investigate temporal and edge effect variation for the Azorean arthropod communities. New information: The collected arthropods belong to a wide diversity of taxonomic groups of Arachnida, Diplopoda, Chilopoda and Insecta classes. We collected a total of 13,516 specimens from which it was possible to identify to species level almost all specimens (13,504). These identified specimens belong to 15 orders, 58 families (plus three with only genus or family level identification) and 97 species of arthropods. A total of 35 species are considered introduced, 34 native non-endemic and 28 endemic. Additionally, a total of 10 taxa (12 specimens) were recorded at genus, family or order level. This dataset will allow researchers to test the impact of edge effect on arthropod biodiversity and to investigate seasonal changes in Azorean arthropod native forest communities.

SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forests of Azores: V - New records of terrestrial arthropods after ten years of SLAM sampling.

Background: A long-term study monitoring arthropods (Arthropoda) is being conducted since 2012 in the forests of Azorean Islands. Named "SLAM - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores", this project aims to understand the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers in the distribution, abundance and diversity of Azorean arthropods. The current dataset represents arthropods that have been recorded using a total of 42 passive SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) deployed in native, mixed and exotic forest fragments in seven Azorean Islands (Flores, Faial, Pico, Graciosa, Terceira, São Miguel and Santa Maria). This manuscript is the fifth data-paper contribution, based on data from this long-term monitoring project. New information: We targeted taxa for species identification belonging to Arachnida (excluding Acari), Chilopoda, Diplopoda, Hexapoda (excluding Collembola, Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera (but including only Formicidae)). Specimens were sampled over seven Azorean Islands during the 2012-2021 period. Spiders (Araneae) data from Pico and Terceira Islands are not included since they have been already published elsewhere (Costa and Borges 2021, Lhoumeau et al. 2022). We collected a total of 176007 specimens, of which 168565 (95.7%) were identified to the species or subspecies level. For Araneae and some Hemiptera species, juveniles are also included in this paper, since the low diversity in the Azores allows a relatively precise species-level identification of this life-stage. We recorded a total of 316 named species and subspecies, belonging to 25 orders, 106 families and 260 genera. The ten most abundant species were mostly endemic or native non-endemic (one Opiliones, one Archaeognatha and seven Hemiptera) and only one exotic species, the Julida Ommatoiulusmoreleti (Lucas, 1860). These ten species represent 107330 individuals (60%) of all sampled specimens and can be considered as the dominant species in the Azorean native forests for the target studied taxa. The Hemiptera were the most abundant taxa, with 90127 (50.4%) specimens. The Coleoptera were the most diverse with 30 (28.6%) families.We registered 72 new records for many of the islands (two for Flores, eight for Faial, 24 for Graciosa, 23 for Pico, eight for Terceira, three for São Miguel and four for Santa Maria). These records represent 58 species. None of them is new to the Azores Archipelago. Most of the new records are introduced species, all still with low abundance on the studied islands. This publication contributes to increasing the baseline information for future long-term comparisons of the arthropods of the studied sites and the knowledge of the arthropod fauna of the native forests of the Azores, in terms of species abundance, distribution and diversity throughout seasons and years.