BIODESERTS: BIODIVERSITY OF DESERTS AND ARID REGIONS
José Carlos Brito will present a seminar entitled "Biodeserts: Biodiversity of Deserts and Arid Regions" on 10th of February, at 14.30, in Campus Agrário de Vairão auditorium.
The early scientific activities of José Brito as research technician (1994-1998) addressed the distribution of biodiversity and conservation planning of an endemic lizard (Lacerta schreiberi) of the Iberian Peninsula. Innovative research was focused on the early use of Species Distribution Models (SDM) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for biogeographical analyses and conservation planning. Research during the PhD thesis at the University of Lisbon (1998-2003) aimed the biological characterisation of a threatened and virtually unknown Iberian viper (Vipera latastei) for conservation planning.
As a post-doctoral researcher at CIBIO (University of Porto; 2003-2008), multiple collaborations were engaged with Spanish, Moroccan, Algerian and Serbian researchers to expand the work on vipers. Research has been focusing on geographical variation patterns in biological parameters and in the combination of Geostatistics, GIS and SDM for studying biogeographic patterns and evolutionary and landscape processes at multiple scales using morphological and molecular markers (Iberian Peninsula and Maghreb, triple-contact zone of Burgos, and Balkans Peninsula). Research on deserts and arid regions started as early as 2000, and expanded during the post-doctoral activities at CIBIO, where currently José Brito is an Assistant Researcher (2008-2013). A total of 23 fieldwork missions in Africa have been developed, totalling about 500 work-days, mostly in Mauritania and Morocco. Innovative research using contemporary spatial and molecular tools has been developed in regions where biodiversity is poorly known, due to general remoteness and civil unrest, but where biodiversity hotspots are be found, such as isolated mountain-sky islands. The research has been focused on three main topics: biodiversity distribution, evolutionary and landscape processes, and conservation planning.Since 2011, José Brito is the principal investigator of the research group “BIODESERTS – Biodiversity of Deserts and Arid Regions”.
The current talk is intended to present the group and will address the groups’: 1) members; 2) funding; 3) objectives; 4) achievements; 5) advanced training of human resources; 6) science dissemination; 7) productivity, and 8) future research.
Right after, at 15:45, Iolanda Rocha will present the Student Seminar on “Patterns of biological invasion in the herpetofauna of the Balearic Islands and Iberian Peninsula: determining the origin as conservation tools". Iolanda is a MSc student supervised by Miguel A. Carretero and Daniele Salvi.