Terrestrial arthropods contribute to numerous ecosystem services vital to food security (pollination, nutrient cycling, pest control and wildlife and farm species nutrition), making agriculture one of the key sectors to be impacted by declines in arthropod diversity. The arthropod conservation agenda is made all the more urgent in the face of climate change, a growing […]
This was produced as an assignment to a great graduate course I attended last October in Ekenäs herrgård, Sweden: “Making Science Matter – Increasing the Impact of Ecological Findings”, organized by Anni Tonteri, Tomas Roslin and Mar Cabeza. Thank you Miquel Torrents, Irene Piccini, Alessia Uboni, and Mika Hietanen for your help in improving this […]
On March 26th I begun my journey to Madeira Island. Our goals are several spider genera that have speciated in the Madeira archipelago, for which we intend to perform integrative taxonomic studies, using phylogenetic analyses, geometric morphometics, gut content analyses, etc. I started with the much helpful Isamberto Silva aiding me in an initial job […]
Computational power is now allowing increasingly complex mechanistic models that, beyond looking at emergent patterns, simulate the processes that drive such patterns. From Jan 30 to Feb 3 2017, four of our PhD students are in Helsinki taking a course on ABMs and applications in Netlogo. Some pretty cool stuff is coming out already, stay tuned!
Note: This blog post was first published online here, in a blog managed by a group of fellow PhD students (including me) that attended a course on increasing the impact of ecological findings. I hope you like it! The rise of (mis?)information Since the beginning of the last millennia, we have seen the number of scientists skyrocket. It is […]
The Desertas Wolf Spider, Hogna ingens, is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Despite its bulk (up to 40mm body size), it inhabits a single valley in the north of the Deserta Grande Island, Madeira. This area is now mostly invaded by grasses of the genus Phalaris and as […]
Anapistula ataecina is a critically endangered spider from Portuguese caves. We are now studying its distribution and what drives its abundance throughout its small range in the Frade Cave System.
