FCTUC leads European project that aims to review and improve pollinator reference collections in Portugal

The Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) is the leader of the European project “Aligning Reference Collections with tAxonomic Development Efforts for pollinator conservation in Portugal - ARCADE”, aimed at reviewing and improving collections of the main groups of pollinators in Portugal .

Under the coordination of professor and researcher Sílvia Castro and with the involvement of researchers Hugo Gaspar, Cristina Rufino, Ana Afonso, and João Loureiro from the Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE) and the Department of Life Sciences (DCV), the project aims to index, review, and improve the main reference collections of bees, hoverflies, and diurnal butterflies across the country.

Currently, information on pollinating insects in Portugal is limited, and the most significant public collections need to be indexed and organized to identify gaps in knowledge about the main pollinating insects. Therefore, the ARCADE project aims to solve this problem, «providing a solid reference base for future initiatives related to the taxonomy, conservation and monitoring of pollinators in the national territory», explains the project coordinator, Sílvia Castro.

ARCADE is part of a larger European project, “TETTRIs,” and has three main goals: the creation of an accessible and updated database from several subcollections of pollinators in Portugal, the review and improvement of three Portuguese public collections to serve as a reference in future projects, and the development of good practice protocols for the organization and preservation of existing and future collections.

Hugo Gaspar, a PhD student at FCTUC who studies the taxonomy and distribution of bees in mainland Portugal, highlights that «it is important to highlight that the three collections to be reviewed and organized are at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra, at the National Museum of Natural History and Science at the University of Lisbon, and at the Museum of Natural History and Science at the University of Porto.»

The young researcher believes that ARCADE «will be essential for achieving the objectives of projects already underway, such as PolinizAÇÃO, coordinated by UC, and for the polli.NET network». Hugo Gaspar also highlights that this new project «represents a significant advance in knowledge about the taxonomy and distribution of pollinators in Portugal, providing access to high-quality and standardized reference collections throughout the country».

In addition to the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra, the National Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Lisbon and the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto, the ARCADE project also brings together the FLOWer Lab of the CFE/FCTUC, the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change (cE3c) of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, the Center for the Conservation of Butterflies in Portugal (TAGIS), the University of the Azores and the University of Madeira, in collaborative work in favour of pollinators.

For more information about the ARCADE project, see here.