Island Biology Interest Group

I received a Ph.D. in Insect Ecology from the University of London (Imperial College) in 1997 and I am currently leading the Island Biodiversity, Biogeography and Conservation research group (IBBC) and the Arthropod Macroecology Group of cE3c. In addition I am leading the Azorean Biodiversity Group in Azores (http://www.gba.uac.pt/). I participated in the development of the Azorean Biodiversity Portal (http://www.azoresbioportal.angra.uac.pt/), a web interface for communicating biodiversity research in the Azorean region to the public.

I am a professor of Ecology at the University of Azores. My research focuses on arthropod macroecology patterns and processes on island ecosystems.

For many years I have been involved in island research using as model system the Macaronesian islands and in particular Azores.

I currently collaborate with several overlapping groups of colleagues principally working on a range of topics in island ecology, evolution and conservation, and on topics in macroecology and diversity theory. These collaborations have included various funded programs focused on: biogeography of islands group - BIG (led by M. Borregaard, University of Copenhagen, and 14 others); ISLANDS - Community Assembly on Remote Islands (led by Christophe Thébaud, CESAB -Center for Synthesis analysis of biodiversity).

My current research is driven by three overarching objectives: i) collect long-term ecological data to investigate the processes affecting patterns of species diversity, abundance and distribution at different spatial scales; ii) use Macaronesia as a model system to investigate ecological and evolutionary mechanisms responsible for shaping island biotas; iii) identify pathways that impact oceanic indigenous assemblages under global change for conservation purposes.

Islands Arthropods SADs SARs Community Ecology