Title: Climate change and steroid hormones: implications for the functioning of aquatic ecosystems

Aquatic ecosystems are increasingly affected by multiple stress factors, from climate change to contamination by emerging chemical compounds, of which endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are a very relevant group. Among the most potent EDCs are steroid hormones, with progestins being one of the least studied groups. However, the existing data reveals great concern, given the negative effects they can cause on the reproduction of aquatic organisms, even at low concentrations (ng/L). Progestins are known to shape the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, and temperature can intervene in the regulation of HPG, so they may have synergistic effects in the aquatic environment.
This talk will present some work on the combined effects of climate change and progestins on non-target species, vertebrates and invertebrates and their implications for the functioning of aquatic ecosystems.

Name: Patrícia Cardoso

Patricia Cardoso graduated in Biology in 1998 and completed her PhD in Estuarine Ecology in 2005. She specialized in long-term studies of benthic communities in response to multiple stressors. Since 2015, as a senior researcher at Ciimar, her main research interests have been studying the combined effects of climate change and emerging contaminants (e.g. steroid hormones, PFAS) on the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. She is the author of more than 65 publications in international peer-reviewed journals (h index = 29, > 3400 citations) and 7 book chapters. She is also guest editor of the special issue of Toxics: “Toxic Effects of Persistent Endocrine Disrupters in Coastal Ecosystems” (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/toxics).

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