OBIS Brail IPT. The Long-term Program of Ecological Research of the Coastal Habitats of Espírito Santo (PELD-HCES), which is part of the Brazilian Long-term Ecological Research Program (LTER) has become an IODE Associate Data Unit in order to run OBIS Brazil, the regional node for the South-West Atlantic, which has been dormant for a few years.
PELD-HCES is currently monitoring benthic assemblages, oceanographic and sediment variables on coastal ecosystems including estuaries, mangroves and intertidal coastal reefs. They aim to assess the spatial-temporal patterns of benthic assemblages in the studied ecosystems along seasonal and interannual scales.
The PELD-HCES is a multidisciplinaty research team, coordinated by Prof. Angelo Bernardino at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, and involves several other institutional partners: Universidade de São Paulo, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Universidade Federal do do Paraná, Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, and the Oregon State University, and is funded by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico-CNPQ, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-CAPES, and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Espírito Santo-FAPES.
The PELD-HCES is also an active member (since 2019) of the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network Pole to Pole of the Americas (MBON Pole to Pole), a program with a strong focus on the enhancement of data sharing via OBIS and the implementation of best practices for biodiversity monitoring. The PELD-HCES is open to support regional training courses in environmental monitoring, biodiversity assessment, data analysis and data QC.