Email amcsantos@fc.ul.pt

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Island Biodiversity, Biogeography & Conservation - IBBC
Conservation in Socio-Ecological Systems - CSES
Island Arthropod Macroecology
Socio-Ecological Research

Ana M. C. Santos

External Collaborator

Island Biogeography Community Ecology Functional Ecology Global Change

I have a PhD in Ecology awarded by Imperial College London (UK) in 2010, and I am currently a Research Associate at Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c - Univ. Lisbon, Portugal)

I use an interdisciplinary approach for understanding pattern and process in species

coexistence and community assembly at different scales, with the ultimate goal of linking

biogeographical and community-level processes. This work is grouped in three main research lines: (i) island biogeography; (ii) the macroecology of trait diversity; and (iii) functional ecology and ecosystem functioning and services.

In a pioneering research line on island macroecology I showed that: i) the structure and diversity of the species pool determines the structure of island communities; ii) island communities tend to be more generalist than mainland ones; and iii) species richness and trait diversity on islands are not governed by the same environmental factors. I also iv) showed that archipelagos follow the same species–area relationship as their constituent islands. My ongoing research within these two topics focuses on: i) evaluating cross‐scale variations of species richness and functional and phylogenetic structure of island and mainland extinct and extant communities across spatial and temporal scales; ii) identifying the factors behind the geographical variations in functional and phylogenetic diversity, evaluating if they change with scale; iii) investigating how data quality and resolution (of biological and environmental variables) influence the perception and interpretation of diversity patterns; iv) examining the functional and phylogenetic diversity of vertebrates in Iberian protected areas; vi) identifying the main drivers of the conservation status of island mammal species and of plant invasions on islands; and vi) assessing trait evolution throughout the island’s ontogeny, also identifying the drivers of trait changes. The acquired expertise allowed me v) synthesizing knowledge through three different reviews on island biodiversity, large-scale patterns of parasitoid diversity, and the methods used to assess the ecosystem services provided by insects.

More recently I started a new research line studying the impact of global change on ecosystem functioning, establishing a new research line based on field and laboratory experiments that so far has led to novel insights on the relationship between dung decomposition, land intensification and climate change (unp). I have supervised a PhD thesis on this topic, and I have lead a project using field land laboratory experiments to evaluate how climate and land use management affect dung beetle diversity and their role in different ecosystem functions.

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ERRO 401

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