Laboratory for Conservation of Biodiversity and Waters

The laboratory was originally established as the Mollusc Laboratory in March 2001, at the Federal University of Pará, Bragança Campus. Although our research is mostly centred on freshwater and marine bivalves, we have carried out projects on other invertebrates from mangroves and other coastal habitats, as well as from freshwater rivers and streams. In 2015, it was decided to change the name of the laboratory in order to reflect a more general focus on aquatic invertebrate diversity, ecology and conservation.

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The lab has a total area of 80 m² divided into two equal areas, one for more general ecological lab work, sorting and identification, and a second for more sensitive work, including microscopy. There is further office space in a smaller adjacent area. The laboratory has a variety of benthic sampling devices, digital and analogical equipment for measuring water quality parameters and sediment analysis, as well as stereoscopes, microscopes, computing facilities, and cold storage.

Currently, my postgraduate students and I are looking at the relationship between riparian habitat diversity, water quality and benthic invertebrate taxonomic and functional diversity as well as modelling freshwater mussel populations in relation to complex hydrological variables and the diversity of other benthic invertebrates.

My undergraduate students are examining aquatic beetle diversity, especially Elmidae, a promising ecological indicator of habitat diversity and flow regimes.