André Vicente Liz

I hold Bachelor degrees in Biology (2015) and Geography (2018) from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, where my theses consisted, respectively, in a peat-based reconstruction of the Subantarctic Holocene paleoclimate and in assessing the conservation state of alkaline peatlands (habitat 7230 - Natura 2000) in Spain. In 2017, I finished an Erasmus Mundus Masters in Applied Ecology at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, with the focus on climatic constraints of a micro-endemic, endangered lizard. This mixed background and early research experience have shaped my interests towards biogeographic approaches to conservation, but also to the social conflicts of wildlife conservation in the Anthropocene.

I am currently a PhD student at BIODESERTS research group, with a project on comparative phylogeography of the Sahara-Sahel ecoregion. This work aims to disentangle the historic role of Plio-Pleistocene dry/humid climatic cycles in shaping the historical biogeography of the largest desert on Earth, a fascinating system hosting unique biodiversity yet largely unknown. My main objectives are to test: i) climate-induced allopatric speciation as the main diversification agent; ii) location of biodiversity refugia and dispersal corridors; iii) relationships between genetic diversity/structure and environmental-dependent taxa persistence in refugia. I examine whether genetic structure and genetic/spatial isolation are strong in low dispersal ability taxa, and whether taxa-specific habitat requirements are related to distinct spatial/temporal locations of refugia and of dispersal corridor dynamics. For this purpose, I integrate distribution, climate, landscape, and genetic data from >30 co-distributed vertebrates with different dispersal abilities and habitat traits.