History and context of the Program
The Post-Graduation in Coastal and Oceanic Systems (PGSISCO), based at the Center for Marine Studies (CEM) of the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) started its activities in 2006 with the Academic Master's Degree, being made official by the Ministry of Education as provided in Ordinance No. 679, published in the Federal Official Gazette on 03/16/2006, Opinion No. 474/2005. In 2011, PGSISCO started its activities at the Doctorate level. Thus, with 10 years of history completed in 2016, PGSISCO can be considered a young graduate program, but with a significant volume of academic and social inclusion activities that allow it to be placed on a higher level of development compared to its past. recent. Since the first selection process carried out in 2006, more than 100 students have completed their work, with the vast majority settling in related areas of the labor market, or continuing academic training in national and international Doctoral programs. At PGSISCO, the PhD program had its first defenses in 2015, and already has 10 doctorates and 25 students regularly enrolled.
PGSISCO is the continuous result of efforts by CEM / UFPR to create a reference space in the training of human resources and development of research in Marine Sciences. The emergence of CEM / UFPR - or Marine Biology Center until the mid-1990s - in 1980 and the creation of the undergraduate course in Marine Sciences in 2000, which was later transformed into Oceanography in 2004, gave the CEM / UFPR is a condition of an advanced research center integrated with teaching units, where students experience scientific research intensely at its different levels. This academic arrangement has been expanded thanks to the creation of other undergraduate courses at CEM / UFPR, to mention: Aquaculture Technology (2009), recently transformed into Aquaculture Engineering (2015), Degree in Exact Sciences (2014), Civil Engineering ( 2015) and Environmental and Sanitary Engineering (2015). With the gradual opening of undergraduate courses, new professors have joined CEM / UFPR and strengthened their teaching base, and, consequently, helping to consolidate PGSISCO.
PGSISCO is a space for theoretical reflection and research practice, facilitated by the interaction of professors graduated in the various areas of knowledge of the Marine Sciences (Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Oceanography, among others), with a focus on understanding the coastal and ocean systems in the most diverse regions of Brazil and the world, including Antarctica, favoring the formation of a promising space for the development of innovative methodologies, concepts and analytical approaches, in addition to providing scientific, technological and instrumental subsidies for basic research and applied, which in addition to being fundamental bases for the sustainable development of the Brazilian coastal zone, also help to understand biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics at regional and global scales. At the same time, the integrated view of coastal and oceanic systems enables the creation of management instruments, in terms of performance, which creates space for research in the development of products to strengthen participatory management, a perspective that has been widely debated in political circles and national and international academics. In practical terms, PGSISCO's mission is, at the regional and national level, to generate knowledge that promotes “the improvement of the quality of life of the Brazilian population and of those who use the coastal zone for leisure and economic sustenance through better environmental quality”. The generation of specific knowledge within the scope of PGSISCO can translate into an increase in fishing resources and the quality of water resources, in the conservation of marine fauna and flora and in the improvement of the social conditions of coastal communities.
Coastal and oceanic systems tend to undergo a significant change in their biogeochemical and biodiversity dynamics, as they are environments that receive natural and anthropogenic organic matter, resulting from processes that occurred on the continent, in the atmosphere and in the adjacent rivers. These ecosystems have historically been directly or indirectly affected by various human activities, in addition to keeping real archives of climatic and ecological evolution over different time scales. In order to meet a wide range of relevant scientific aspects regarding the studies of coastal and oceanic systems, PGSISCO is structured under a single area of concentration, Dynamics of Oceanic and Coastal Ecosystems, developing from there, three lines of research.
Program proposal
PGSISCO is an academic space for interdisciplinary interactions with a main focus on themes directly focused on the Sciences of the Sea, where theoretical reflection and research practice is facilitated by the interaction of professors graduated in different areas of knowledge, citing Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geology and Oceanography.
In this way, the general objective is to produce specific knowledge in Marine Sciences, in order to assist in the understanding of the environmental changes of marine ecosystems in temporal, local, regional and global scales, and, consequently, to seek in an integrated way an accurate understanding of marine biodiversity and the multiple factors that govern coastal and ocean systems.
Specific objectives are:
1) To train, at the level of academic excellence, professionals in Marine Sciences focused on teaching and scientific research in an academic and private environment, who are able to study the factors that control and interfere in the functioning of coastal and oceanic ecosystems, including their dimensions physical, chemical, geological, biological and socio-environmental and ecological interfaces with biodiversity;
2) Support, through its student and teaching staff, actions by the government and the University in the search for practical solutions for: socio-environmental problems, including the management of natural resources (with an emphasis on fisheries management); environmental and water quality monitoring; assessment of environmental impacts, such as dredging, coastal pollution and eutrophication; development of products and processes with low environmental impact; development and improvement of technologies and processes to reduce the environmental impact on coastal and ocean systems; in addition to specific aspects associated with environmental contamination by domestic and industrial waste, which may interfere with the natural structure of ecosystems and biodiversity.
Although PGSISCO's vocation in the training of professionals with an academic profile is explicit, the positioning of graduates of the course in the private sector, other universities, federal institutes and public bodies as municipal and state environmental secretaries, has shown that PGSISCO provides training in which the focus of the research is directed towards the generation of knowledge arising from the understanding of the socio-environmental reality, whose products are oriented to the understanding, resolution and questioning of society's demands, in the regional and global scope.
ISCED Categories
