PEDRO MONTERROSO’S PHD THESIS WAS DISTINGUISED WITH THE SECEM AWARD

Pedro Seabra Monterroso, currently a researcher at CIBIO-InBIO, was recently awarded with the SECEM (Sociedad Española para la Conservación y Estudio de los Mamíferos) Prize 2014, with a value of 3.000€, delivered to the best doctoral thesis on Iberian mammals.

The main purpose of SECEM in offering this award is to promote the research on wild mammal species of the Iberian Peninsula, Balearic and Canary Islands. This January 29th the Jury, composed by the Directive Board of the SECEM, decided to endow the prize to the thesis “Ecological interactions and species coexistence in Iberian mesocarnivore communities” defended at the University of Porto.

With the ambitious goal of studying the extremely complex structure of mesocarnivores communities, Pedro’s research was focused on two main topics: the evaluation of non-invasive methods; and the investigation of interspecific competitive strategies.

From a methodological point of view, Pedro’s results demonstrated that: i) lynx urine and valerian extract effectively attract most of the Iberian mesocarnivores; ii) the morphological identification of mesocarnivore scats produces high error rates, which can be minimized using molecular tools; and iii) that hair-snaring stations are the an effective and low-cost alternative for long term mesocarnivore monitoring.

At the ecological level, Pedro found that the interspecific relationships between competitors are dynamic, varying seasonally and geographically. He also found that the selection of prey is involved in the mediation of competitive relations.

Another interesting result was that there is no competitive dominance of pine martens (Martes martes) over stone martens (Martes foina) in the Peneda-Gerês National Park, contrasting with prevailing hypothesis.

This thesis brings new knowledge about the functioning of Iberian carnivores’ communities, with practical implications for their conservation.

Click here to see the official announcement on SECEM's website.