Ecology of Environmental Change - eChanges

Paula Sofia Antunes Matos

External Collaborator

Global change ecology Ecology of extreme environment Trait-based ecology Ecological indicators of climate change Biological soil crusts and lichens Extreme environment

I have a PhD in Biology and Ecology of Global Change by the Universities of Lisbon and Aveiro (July 2016). My main focus is on the development of ecological indicators of global change based on lichen functional diversity, with a particular emphasis on climate change. The main aims of my research are: i) identify specific climate variables acting on lichen traits; iv) compare lichen functional diversity in different regions of the world to identify general patterns of change due to climate; v) validate these spatial changes over time; vi) build an ecological indicator of climate change based on lichen functional diversity; disentangle the effects of climate from other global change drivers like pollution. This work has been developed in collaboration with researchers from North and South America, Europe and Asia.