Rui Manuel Cleto Morgado
PhD Student
I completed my graduation in Biology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in 1997, with a graduation work on the ecology of the great bustard (Otis tarda), a threatened steppe bird that breeds in the southern plains of Portugal. From 1999 to 2008 I worked as a research grant holder and then as a researcher at the Centro de Ecologia Aplicada Prof. Baeta Neves, Instituto Superior de Agronomia (CEABN), where I conducted research mostly on the ecology and conservation of farmland/ steppe birds. After this (from 2008-2014) I worked as an environmental consultant at the private company ERENA – Ordenamento e Gestão de Recursos Naturais S.A., where I participated in several projects on Biodiversity monitoring, management and conservation.
Since October 2015 I am conducting my PhD project at InBIO – Research Network in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, which intends to analyze the ecological effects of the increasing intensification levels of olive farming, namely its effects on biodiversity and selected ecosystem services.
My main research interests are in the area of biodiversity monitoring, management and conservation in human-modified landscapes, particularly in Mediterranean farmland landscapes. At present I am interested in analyzing the effects of current changes in land-uses (originated by national or EU policies) and farming practices (namely agricultural intensification) on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Within this area of work I am also interested in investigating the provision of pest control services by insectivorous bird species in agricultural and agro-forestry systems. For these analyses I am using olive farming as a model system and the community of farmland birds (with its different functional groups or guilds) as the main biological indicator.
