Besides the coastline, the continental shelf is one of the most impacted marine habitats along the Brazilian coast. Not only fisheries but also oil and gas industries, shipping, and litter represent important threats to the marine biodiversity. Different geomorphological structures comprise the seascape that harbors not only a huge biodiversity, but also important regulating services. 

Prof. Sumida obtained his PhD in 1998 from the University of Southampton (National Oceanography Centre, UK) and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Hawaii in 1999-2000. Prof. Sumida joined the University of São Paulo in 2000 as an Assistant Professor. In 2007, Professor Sumida became an Associate Professor after obtaining a Habilitation title from the same university, where he still teaches several biological oceanography courses. During his career, Prof. Sumida worked on several aspects of the ecology of benthic organisms in different ocean basins, such as the North and South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, North Pacific and Southern Ocean. He participated in over 40 oceanographic cruises and dived in many research submersibles down to 4200 m depth. At the University of São Paulo, Prof. Sumida has been supervising dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and publishing several scientific papers. He is currently involved in projects dealing with several aspects of benthic ecology.