My research interests include the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity and ecosystems services, spatially-explicit models of population dynamics, species-area relationships and biodiversity monitoring.

My current research questions are:
(1) How can we develop a global network to monitor biodiversity change?
(2) What are the impacts of agricultural abandonment on biodiversity?
(3) How can we improve population models to predict the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity?
(4) How should biodiversity and ecosystem services be dealt with in Environmental Assessments?

I received my PhD in Ecology from Stanford University in 2002, my Masters in Biophysics from the University of Lisbon in 1998, and a Lic. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico in 1995. From 2003 to 2005, I coordinated the Portugal Millennium Ecosystem Assessmente as a post-doc at CBA, from 2005 to 2006 I was an Auxiliary Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and from 2006 to 2009 I was the Director of the National Park of Peneda-Gerês. I am currently a Ciência 2007 Researcher at CBA.

My research interests are centered on two main topics: characterization and understanding of the relationship between ecological patterns at large spatial scales, and application of Bayesian methods to data analysis. Both topics are driven by practical problems: the former by the need to provide sound scientific guidelines to practical problems of conservation, and the latter because I perceive the Bayesian methodology as a more unified approach to data analysis and an easier way to communicate scientific results to managers and policy makers. In the past, I studied theoretical space plasma physics, with emphasis on computer simulations. Computer simulations remain one of my favorite areas of research, and I have been particularly interested in patterns of species diversity in space and time.

I am currently looking into how moth and bee diversity respond to farmland abandonment across four spatial scales. Nested sampling in three study landscapes gives us an insight into how overall species diversity of these species-rich pollinator groups responds to different stages of farmland abandonment. This research is useful to design effective conservation policies in order to manage the forecasted trend of farmland abandonment within European mountain landscapes. Such understanding is urgently needed as most studies have shown a bias towards grassland specialists alone and are often performed at small spatial scales only, while many organisms use and move through landscapes at larger spatial scales. Our aim is to use a multi-biotope species-area relationship approach (countryside SAR) to build species diversity models and scenarios for landscapes under different abandonment levels.
My main research interests are Conservation and Movement Ecology of Lepidoptera (moths/butterflies), and this project follows earlier projects which addressed effects of woodland conservation management on moths of conservation concern, landscape-scale conservation of moths in landscapes dominated by intensive agriculture, impacts of habitat fragmentation on movements in a woodland butterfly, and movements of grassland butterfly species.

I have worked in research projects both in theoretical ecology and in ethno-biology, from the modelling of dispersal in a fragmented landscape to the study of uses and representations of symbolic species in Madagascar. I have a strong interest in conservation biology. As a PhD student, I will be studying of the consequences of farmland abandonment on European biodiversity and the insight brought by source-sink models, countryside SARs and socio-economic studies. This subject is of particular interest because, while considering longstanding interactions between humans and nature, scientists face a paradox when looking into farmland abandonment and forest regeneration. The loss of age-old human-modified habitats is a threat to the established biodiversity, yet this loss also provides other endangered species with a new availability of land. Another such example is the role that fire plays in forest regeneration. Hence, this project will help us understand the patterns of these phenomena and study their consequences on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human societies.

The main focus of my My main research interests are to understand the constraints underlying life-history strategy variation and how to model the response of species to environmental change. I am currently focusing on comparing the performance of mechanistic versus phenomenological models in predicting reptile species distribution.

The main focus of my research is on agricultural abandonment in Europe and its effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Having Portugal and Sweden as study cases i am using an ecosystem services approach to investigate how can we manage abandoned areas in innovative ways, with positive feedbacks to biodiversity. Another focus of my research will be a critical analysis of regional agricultural policies and drivers and their effectiveness in enhancing the capacity of local social-ecological systems to manage agricultural landscapes.

My background is in ecology and environmental sciences, with an MSc degree in environmental policy and management.  I have worked in the Romanian National Environmental Agency on national level policies and awareness raising campaigns. My research interests cover environmental policies, biodiversity conservation policies and management, perceptions on environmental issues, the influence of media on environmental perceptions. I am currently working on strategies for prioritizing areas for biodiversity conservation.

My main interests are in the field of landscape ecology. My research uses species-area models to assess the relationship between different taxonomic groups and different types of habitats, across a wide landscape area. This is of particular importance in Europe because the landscape has undergone major changes, creating more and more fragmented habitats. Hence, we expect to gain a better understanding of the impact and influence of certain habitat categories, and their area, have in the distribution and richness of species across the landscape

Currently a post-doc at James Cook University. She developed a socio-ecological model for farmland abandondment. This model exhibits regime shifts between occupation and abandonment, which are driven both by the social and the ecological component.

My research is dedicated to the study of deciduous oak forests in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Deciduous oak forests are native to this region but have been severely destroyed during the course of history, through deforestation and fire. Presently most oak forest patches, including old growth ones, correspond to secondary regenerated forest. Moreover, natural regeneration is being observed in former agricultural fields after rural exodus, thus anticipating an opportunity to the reestablishment of native forest. My dissertation analyses the current role of oak forests for biodiversity conservation and their resistance and resilience to fire disturbance. I am also interested in the relationship between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being, in particular in the context of the Mediterranean forest.

Currently an Assistant Professor at Universidade Federal do Para. He studied the relationship between society and nature, particularly in role of the indigenous populations of the Amazon in the management of biodiversity and ecoystem services. He worked with the "ribeirinhos" of the Reserve of Riozinho do Anfrizio, and studied their knowledge of the biodiversity of the region, and how sustainable is their management of the river fisheries.

My research is on the creation of a City Biodiversity Index for Lisbon, to be used as a monitorization instrument from 2010 to 2020. This is part of a City Government iniciative, where it has been decided to adopt the target of improving by 20% the biodiversity until 2020. So my project is related to the characterization of Lisbon's biodiversity at all the levels, including the size of green areas, which species can be found in the city, and the city financial investment in biodiversity.

Currently a staff member at Liga para a Protecção da Natureza. He studied the consequences of agriculture abandonment in the distribution patterns of birds in mountain landscapes. He used the countryside species-area relationship to test differences in land abandonment consequences at the local, landscape and regional scales.

She studied the patterns of temporal dynamics of oak forest patches in a mountain landscape (Castro Laboreiro) and their relation to agricultural land abandonment and rural depopulation. She assessed the driving forces that have contributed for the observed changes in the last 30 years, and the trajectories of the different vegetation communities.