Ria Formosa: challenges of a coastal lagoon in a changing environment

The Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIMA) is a multidisciplinary research centre of the University of Algarve. In addition to the scientific research and technological innovation, CIMA is involved in service delivery, graduate training and knowledge transference to the society. The CIMA researchers develop their scientific activity using a multidisciplinary approach, which contributes to produce an integrate knowledge of the ecosystems’ behaviour and to understand the evolution resulting from global changes and anthropogenic impacts. These activities are developed in several territorial foci, of which the Ria Formosa is one of the most intensely studied by the CIMA researchers. More than 60 titles of scientific papers published so far in journals of international circulation contain the designation of Ria Formosa. Many other dozens of scientific articles are also devoted to the study of the Ria Formosa barrier-island system without including this designation in the title. Dozens of master's and doctoral theses from various national and foreign universities have investigated Ria Formosa's ecology, biology, morphology, hydrodynamics, evolution and socio-economy. Thus, why CIMA decided to publish this book over the Ria Formosa? Precisely because of the intrinsic scientific value of this extraordinary wet zone located in the southern coast of the Algarve, and also several researchers of the CIMA investigate or have investigated the Ria Formosa in its multiple aspects as we can see throughout the chapters of this book.