Sedimentary cover of the Portuguese insular margins

The general purpose of this project is the recognition and mapping of the sea bed nature of the Portuguese continental and insular (Azores and Madeira) margins. This main objective is mandatory for the inventory of marine resources (live resources included) and detection of sensible marine ecosystems.

A sustainable use of the natural resources requires management policies founded in scientific knowledge. This research program is based on the need to increase the scientific knowledge of the Portuguese margin. That knowledge is needed, in the future, to adopt the most adequate measures to exploit the natural resources, preserve the marine biodiversity, and protect the endangered ecosystems. As such, products and deliverables from this project will be available as basic R&D documents and management tools for initiatives related to marine resources inventory, environmental protection measures and any other activity in which the nature of the sea-bed is a crucial issue.

Marinha.

The first oceanographic cruises were carried out in Madeira and Azores archipelagos.

The first morphological mapping of the seabed of the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo and Desertas was recently published in the journal “Earth and Planetary Science Letters”. Access here.