Biota from the coastal wetlands of Praia da Vitória (Terceira, Azores, Portugal): Part 1 - Arthropods.

Background: During a LIFE research project aiming at the implementation of the conservation of the habitats and restoration of coastal wetland areas of Praia da Vitória (Terceira, Azores, Portugal), there was the opportunity undertake a systematic record of several groups of arthropods in three wetland areas: Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP). The objective of the study was to perform a rapid biodiversity assessment, comparing the three sites in two different years, before and after the implementation of several conservation measures. This project also contributed to improve the knowledge of Azorean arthropod diversity at both local and regional scales, including new taxa for Terceira island and new records for Azores.

Practices of pharmaceutical waste generation and discarding in households across Portugal.

This work is the first nationwide study in Portugal on pharmaceutical waste generated at households, exploring people's attitudes and risk perception. The waste audit was carried out from September to November 2014, targeting pharmaceutical products kept by a sample of families (n = 244). This campaign was an assignment of VALORMED, the non-profit association that manages waste and packaging from expired and unused pharmaceutical products collected by the pharmacies.