Tag: bioindicators

Otters as bioindicators of estuarine health: a new topical collection from Estuarine Management and Technologies

The collection was launched in collaboration with Instituto Ekko Brasil’s Projeto Lontra.

In a landmark collaboration marking the first joint initiative between the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Estuarine Management and Technologies (EMT) and Instituto Ekko Brasil’s Projeto Lontra, the Pensoft-published journal has launched a new Topical Collection.

Titled “Otters as Bioindicators of Estuarine Health: Innovations in Monitoring and Management from Tropical Coastal Brazil,” the collection celebrates nearly four decades of pioneering otter conservation and estuarine stewardship in Brazil, while advancing global knowledge on sustainable coastal ecosystem management.

Since 1986, Projeto Lontra has stood at the forefront of tropical otter conservation, ecological monitoring, and community engagement. Over the years, its research has provided unprecedented insights into the health of estuarine and coastal ecosystems—making otters not only charismatic species of interest, but powerful sentinels of environmental change.

Reflecting on the partnership, Dr. Oldemar Carvalho Junior, Coordinator of Projeto Lontra, notes:

“2026 will mark the 40th anniversary of Projeto Lontra. This partnership represents a rare convergence of long-term field knowledge, cutting-edge methodology, and global outreach—precisely the kind of collaboration needed to scale impact in applied estuarine conservation.”

From hydrodynamic assessments and habitat connectivity studies to long-term behavioral monitoring, Projeto Lontra has generated one of the most extensive otter-focused datasets in the Western Atlantic.

EMT Editor-in-Chief Dr. Soufiane Haddout highlights the significance of this collaborative milestone:

“Otters aren’t just icons of biodiversity—they’re active barometers of estuarine resilience. Partnering with Instituto Ekko Brasil allows us to amplify voices from the Global South, transforming local stewardship into global action. This is more than a collection; it’s a call to reimagine how we protect our coasts through otter-inspired innovation.”

The new collection directly supports EMT’s mission to strengthen the exchange of applied research, technology, and management strategies that support the long-term sustainability of estuarine ecosystems worldwide.

All contributions to the Topical Collection come from the Projeto Lontra team and invited collaborators who have worked closely with the project over the years. The resulting series of articles will showcase the unparalleled long-term dataset built since 1986 and demonstrate how otters serve as powerful sentinels of estuarine and coastal health.

Guest Editors

Projeto Lontra – Instituto Ekko Brasil

  • Dr Oldemar Carvalho Junior– Coordinator, Projeto Lontra & Institutional Director, Instituto Ekko Brasil, Florianópolis, Brazil
  • Ms Alessandra Bez Birolo – Coordinator of Social Mobilization and Public Policies, Founding Partner, Instituto Ekko Brasil; Environmental Education Coordinator, Projeto Lontra, Brazil
  • Mr Marcelo Tosatti – President, Instituto Ekko Brasil; Field Researcher (20+ years), Projeto Lontra, Brazil

EMT Editorial Board

The partnership between EMT and Projeto Lontra embodies a powerful message: long-term conservation succeeds when knowledge, people, and technology work together.

By elevating nearly 40 years of Brazilian conservation leadership to global research audiences, this Topical Collection aims to inspire new partnerships, operational tools, and policy actions that safeguard estuarine ecosystems for future generations.

Visit the journal’s website at: EMT Journal.

Follow EMT on: X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube.

First-ever fern checklist for Togo to help decision makers in the face of threats to biodiversity

Maidenhair fern (Adiantum schweinfurthii) occurring in dense forests.

Ferns and their allied species, which together comprise the pteridophytes, are vascular non-flowering plants that reproduce via spores. Many of their species are admired for their aesthetics.

However, despite being excellent bioindicators that allow for scientists and decision-makers to monitor the state of ecosystems in the face of climate change and global biodiversity crisis, these species are too often overlooked due to their relatively small size and lack of vivid colours.

Spike moss (Selaginella versicolor) with a preference for very humid and shaded forests.

To bridge the existing gaps in the knowledge about the diversity of ferns and their allied species, while also seeking to identify the ways these plants select their habitats and react to the changes occurring there later on, a research team from Togo and France launched an ambitious biodiversity project in 2013. As for the setting of their long-term study, they chose Togo – an amazingly species-rich country in Western Africa, whose flora expectedly turned out to be hugely understudied.

Having concluded their fern project in 2017, scientists Komla Elikplim Abotsi and Kouami Kokou from the Laboratory of Forestry Research, University of Lomé, Togo, who teamed up with Jean-Yves Dubuisson and Germinal Rouhan, both affiliated with the Institute of Systematics Evolution and Biodiversity (UMR 7205), France, have their first findings published in a taxonomic paper in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

In this first-of-a-kind checklist of Togolese ferns, the researchers record as many as 73 species previously not known to inhabit the country, including 12 species introduced for horticultural purposes. As a result of their 4-year study, the pteridophyte diversity of Togo – a country barely taking up 56,600 km² – now counts a total of 134 species.

Still, the authors believe that there are even more species waiting to be discovered on both national and global level.

“Additional investigations in the difficult to access areas of the far north of the country, and Togo Mountains are still needed to fill possible biodiversity data gaps and enable decision-makers to make the right decisions,” say the researchers.

The triangular staghorn species Platycerium stemaria living on a coffee tree branch.

In addition to their taxonomic paper, the authors are also set to publish an illustrated guide to the pteridophytes of Togo, in order to familiarise amateur botanists with this fascinating biodiversity.

 

Original source:
Abotsi KE, Kokou K, Dubuisson J-Y, Rouhan G (2018) A first checklist of the Pteridophytes of Togo (West Africa). Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e24137. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e24137