LINK ZOOM: 

https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/98754940684?pwd=G60z7zir78qQ7HIbgSDMXwxwSWIeLY.1

A importância da biodiversidade para a prestação de serviços de ecossistema nas cidades. The importance of biodiversity for the provision of ecosystem services in cities. 

21/02/2025 – 11:30h (online via Zoom)

The increasing urban populations and the pressures for urban development together with environmental challenges, such as climate change, air pollution, and natural disasters, continually threaten urban residents' well-being. Nature-based solutions may adapt and mitigate these pressures and ensure human well-being. This urban ecological infrastructure is a system of interconnected ecosystems that provide social, environmental, and technological functions and benefits and a wide range of ecosystem services. An ecosystem’s ability to provide ecosystem services is determined by its structure and functioning. These ecological functions rely on the existing biological diversity, particularly on functional diversity, the type and abundance of species, and the traits present. In this talk, I will present: i) a conceptual framework that addresses the impacts of socio-ecological systems on traits and ecosystem services delivery that improve ecosystem services-based decision-making; ii) that not all types of forested green areas have the same importance for biodiversity; iii) the importance of different types of vegetation for regulating air quality; iv) the importance of different types of vegetation for climate regulation. Cristina Branquinho is a Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and a researcher at the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes.

This session of the Advanced Training Seminar in Gardens, Landscapes and the Environment will be presented by Samira Peruchi Moretto (Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul, Brazil), on the topic of The History of the Dissemination of Feijoa: (Acca sellowiana) and the role of Californian nurseries. 

The aim of this article is to analyse the historical process of the spread of feijoa around the world and the role of Californian nurseries in this process. The study of the spread of a plant species is a dynamic process that transcends borders and emphasises the importance of human beings in the frequent changes to the landscape. The natural environment is constantly changing and human beings are part of this context, living in association with the surrounding environment, changing and adapting to it. The domestication of plants and animals is a significant part of the interactions between humans and the natural environment, illustrating both the demands of humans on the biota and the ways in which the biota shapes human societies. The choice of a variety to be domesticated also interferes with its own dissemination. The fruit species that were most successful in being adapted and accepted by different groups were those that were widely spread across the continents, such as oranges, bananas, cocoa, among others. Thus, today there are species that are more widespread than others. This study is in line with global environmental history, which brings together studies from multiple perspectives to create an analysis of global ecological change.

Drª Samira has a degree in History from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2007), a master's degree in History from the same university (2010) and a PhD in History from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2014), with a sandwich period at California State University, Long Beach (2013). She is a full professor on the History course and the Postgraduate Programme in History at the Federal University of the Southern Frontier (PPGH/UFFS) and the Postgraduate Programme in History at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (PPGH/UFSC). She is currently Director of Postgraduate Studies at UFFS. She is on the Board of the Latin American and Caribbean Society of Environmental History (SOLCHA). She was coordinator of the Postgraduate Programme in History at PPGH/UFFS (2018-2022). Since 2018 she has been the editor of Fronteiras: Revista Catarinense de História. She is a member of the CNPq Research Groups: Laboratório de Imigração, Migração e História Ambiental, LABIMHA/UFSC (researcher) and Fronteiras: Laboratório de História Ambiental at UFFS (leader). She researches and supervises work on Environmental History, Domestication and Introduction of Plant Species, Deforestation, Reforestation, Landscape Transformations, Biodiversity Conservation and the History of the Brazilian Republic, with an emphasis on the period from 1964 to the present day. He has been awarded research fellowships at the following libraries and archives: John Carter Brown Library at Brown University (autumn 2022) and the Huntington Library (winter/spring 2023).