Catarina da Silva

My name is Catarina da Silva, an enthusiastic biologist looking for the first job after academic master and bachelor completion. I began my studies as biologist at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro's, School of Life and Environmental Sciences (2017-2020), where I gained fundamental knowledge in Biology that I could apply throughout my studies. I had the opportunity to work on a study, "Comparative analysis between point counts and the use of autonomous acoustic recorders for avifauna censuses: advantages, disadvantages, and complementarities" through the university in collaboration with the Laboratory of Applied Ecology, which allowed me to develop skills to work on indispensable tools in the area of Ecology that has always fascinated me. After finishing my bachelor's degree, I enrolled a master in Biodiversity, Ecology, and Global Change at the University of Minho's, School of Sciences. This master's degree increased my awareness of the sustainable management of natural resources, ecosystems, and consequently ecosystem services. I was so interested that I ended up collaborating with the Centre for Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA) for my master thesis dissertation entitled: "Cultural ecosystem services related to river mapping in the Northwest of Portugal" within the framework of the Rive2Ocean project (https://river2ocean.pt/). I found important for my scientific identity, studying and investigating ecosystem services. I was able to write a dissertation that far exceeded my expectations thanks to the excellent guidance and training I received from my supervisors throughout the year.