Evolutionary Genetics - EG
Subgroup Leader of Wildlife Genetics

Carlos Alberto Rodríguez Fernandes

Researcher

Phylogeography Molecular Systematics Conservation Genetics Landscape Genetics

I received a Ph.D. in Biology (Phylogeography and Molecular Systematics) from the University of Cardiff (Wales, UK) in 2005 and I am currently a researcher in wildlife genetics in the Evolutionary Genetics group of cE3c and an invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Lisbon.

Working on wildlife genetics means that my research activities and interests include phylogeography, population genetics, molecular systematics and landscape genetics towards the conservation and management of wildlife.

Topics of recent and ongoing research are:

i) development of molecular markers for non-invasive and population genetic investigations of mammalian carnivores

ii) studying hybridization in a conservation genetics context

iii) definition of evolutionary significant units in threatened species

iv) analyses of natural and human-mediated colonisations and range expansions within the framework of, respectively, conservation status assessments and projects on biological invasions

v) landscape genetics to evaluate wildlife population connectivity across road barriers and between protected areas

vi) population genetic structure of mesocarnivores in Iberia

International collaborations include Michael Bruford and Mafalda Costa (Cardiff University), Juha Merilä (University of Helsinki), Mats Björklund (Uppsala University), Shomita Mukherjee (SACON, India), Uma Ramakrishnan (NCBS, India), Tom Gilbert (University of Copenhagen), Tomas Marques-Bonet (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain), Hannah Mumby (University of Hong Kong), Michelle Henley (Elephants Alive, South Africa), Antoinette Kotze (National Zoological Gardens of South Africa), Pamela Burger (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna), and Louiza Derouiche (University of Science and Technology Houari Boumedienne, Algeria).

I am currently co-supervising one final year FCT PhD student (André Pinto Silva), a third year PhD student of the BIODIV doctoral program at the cE3c (Teresa Santos), a third year PhD student of the BIODIV doctoral program at the cE3c (Jéssica Teodoro Paulo), and a first year FCT PhD student (Nuno Martins). André is using small felids in India to evaluate and design networks of protected areas considering climate change scenarios. Teresa's thesis is concerned with population and conservation genomics of southern African elephants, expanding on her MSc thesis on the population genetics of elephants in private nature reserves in the Greater Kruger National Park. Jéssica’s thesis is focused on plant-herbivore interactions, specifically on the ability of spider mites (genus Tetranychus) to suppress plant defences. Nuno's thesis aims to investigate the evolutionary history of African golden wolves and Eurasian golden jackals using population genomics.