I am an Early Career Researcher based at Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre /ARNET - Aquatic Research Network - University of Évora. I hold a bachelor degree in biological oceanography (University of Gdansk, 2009), Erasmus Mundus MSc in Ecohydrology (University of Kiel, University of Algarve, 2012) and PhD in aquatic sciences (University of Algarve, 2017). My main research interests include understanding how aquatic communities respond to environmental drivers. In my work I focus not only on single communities, but also on species interactions, particularly food webs and how the food web attributes alter according to environmental conditions and across different pressures. I have experience in working with diverse aquatic ecosystems (from temporary streams, lakes and ponds, experimental ponds systems, estuaries and coastal areas to deep-sea ecosystems >3000 m), what made me particularly interested if patterns can be universal across ecosystems or are ecosystem or factor specific. Most of my works addresses the contribution to the development of new functional-based indicators for ecosystem-based bioassesment. In this context, from 2020-2022 I was a guest editor of Ecological Indicators journal of the special issue: Meiofauna in a changing world. In my research I follow a multi-disciplinary approach joining traditional methodologies with emergent tools such as: stable isotopes, metagenomics and multi-element analysis. From 2019-2022 I was a Co-PI of the project: Food-web approaches to assess the functional benthic ecosystem interactions for Marine and Coastal management under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. In this project my team focused on the interactions between sediment microbiome, marine nematodes and macrofauna communities in estuary and continental shelf across sites with different sediment characteristics and anthropogenic degrees. We hypothesized that different anthropogenic degrees and trophic sediment conditions have a profound impact on the energy transfer from the lowest trophic levels affecting entire benthic food webs with the highest impact on the top consumers. Output from this research project allowed us to identify certain food web attributes to assess "Good Environmental Status" (focused on descriptor 4-Food Webs) that could be potentially included in the next Marine Strategy Framework Directive. I have been also involved in a deep-sea project that for the first time characterizes the interactions between microbiome and nematodes along the Gloria Fault (Mid-North Atlantic) abyssal plain as a result of international scientific oceanographic campaign on the board of METEOR Research vessel that I was part of. Another on-going collaboration includes national coastal biodiversity assessment program (MarBIS) where I focus on the effect of fisheries on meiofauna-macrofauna interaction. I am also collaborating in two freshwater projects that aim to assess the ecosystem response to climate change in freshwater ponds and reservoirs across biogeographical gradients. Apart from my research career, I´m involved in several Ocean Literacy and science communication activities in Graciosa Island, Azores.