Island Biodiversity, Biogeography & Conservation - IBBC
Island Plant Ecology

Sophie Wallon

PhD Student

Ecosystem functioning, Biodiversity, Ecology

I am currently conducting a Ph.D  at the University of the Azores started in 2021 within a cE3c team: Island Biodiversity, Biogeography & Conservation team - IBBC. I have a grant from the FRCT and my work is supervised by the Prof. Rui Elias (cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes/Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal) and by the Prof. Paulo A.V. Borges ((cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes/Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal).

My Ph.D thesis is part of the project PASTURCLIM (https://ce3c.ciencias.ulisboa.pt/research/projects/ver.php?id=203).

My main interest is to analyze the impact of climate change on the Azorean pasture. I focus especially on the impact on the arthropod’s communities associated with grasses. Thus, my research focuses on evaluating changes in grassland, herbivore and predatory arthropod abundance, taxonomic and functional diversity in Azorean pastures under different conditions (in situ raising temperature: OTC’s).