Jorge Doña

I am interested in describing biodiversity through a DNA Barcoding approach and understanding speciation mechanisms in mutualistic species.

I started my PhD in March 2014 under Roger Jovani and David Serrano supervision at the Evolutionary Ecology Department. My PhD thesis is about the evolutionary ecology of the interaction between feather mites and birds aiming to understand the mechanisms underlying the diversity and the ecology of this ectosymbiont group. I am using a multi scale approaching from the foraging and population ecology of the species to the gene flow and assemblages of the host-symbiont communities.  It will be solved with an integrative taxonomy approach (morphological + high throughput sequencing data) and ecological network analysis.

Eduardo Rodríguez Expósito

I started my PhD at the department of Etology and Conservation of Biodiversity (EBD-CSIC) in January under the supervision of Francisco García González. Sexual selection favors the evolution of traits involved in reproduction and underlies the development of complex interactions between males and females. Polyandry has a key role in sexual selection. It allows sexual selection to continue after copulation through post-copulatory sexually selected processes (cryptic female choice and sperm competition) that determine reproductive success. This thesis will shed light on the mechanisms underlying the origin and maintenance of polyandrous behaviour, and will investigate the genetic variance in female mating rates and the relation between mating system and sexual conflict dynamics. I am interested in the study of sexual conflict, based on the differences in the evolutionary interest of both sexes and its consequences. Interestingly, it may lead to antagonistic sexual coevolution. While males develop traits for increasing their efficacy ensuring the paternity of major number of descendents, females develop traits to avoid male control over copulation. To this end, we will use bean beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus, as study system and will carry out innovative experimental evolution approaches combined with quantitative genetic experimental designs.

email: edroex@ebd.csic.es

Miguel Camacho

I started my PhD on 2011 on the Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics Group (Dept. of Integrative Ecology). My advisor is Jennifer Leonard (EBD-CSIC) and my co-advisor is Jesus Maldonado (National Zoo, US). I study the diversification of mammals in Sundaland. I want to understand the role that the topography and the geological history have played in generating and maintaining the biodiversity on this region. I am using DNA sequences to describe the neutral variation of some groups across the region. I have focused on Sundamys, a group of rats, as a model to evaluate the effect that sea level fluctuations and vegetations changes in the recent geological past have had on shaping the biodiversity on this region. I will compare neutral variation to other genes involved in adaptation to high altitude to study how and when mammal communities endemic to mountains on this region have formed. I have participated in two field expeditions to Borneo to collect animal samples for genetic analysis. My work also involves collaborations with other groups that do fieldwork on this region and working with museum specimens. We are using novel strategies to sequence mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from recent and museum samples using high-throughput platforms. I am interested in collaborating with people that is working on describing biodiversity on Southeast Asia or is currently doing fieldwork in Sundaland to share resources.

email: miguel.camacho@ebd.csic.es

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miguel_Camacho4

Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.es/citations?user=1M02-S4AAAAJ&hl=es

Group webpage: www.consevol.org

Martina Ferraguti

My name is Martina and I was born in Rome on 4 June 1987. I was graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of Roma Tre, with specialization in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management in 2011.

Throughout the university career I have awarded with two grants in the LLP Programme / Erasmus and Erasmus Student Placement. In the latest, I started my research career in the field of the Ecology of Parasitism. My research interests focused on the study of the transmission dynamics of avian malaria pathogens. I improved my experience on the use of analytical techniques, including molecular analysis techniques, to identify both blood parasites and insect vectors such as Mosquitoes and Culicoides.

In July 2012, I finished an Official Master of II level in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville and I am currently in the second year of my PhD Thesis thanks a FPU grant. In my project, titled “Effect of biodiversity on the circulation of both pathogens transmitted by mosquitoes: West Nile Virus and Malaria Parasite”, I want to investigate the role of Biodiversity on the

transmission ecology of two avian pathogens transmitted by mosquitoes: West Nile virus (WNV) and the Malaria Parasite. I will study the spatial and temporal dynamics of mosquitoes and the incidence of pathogens in the avian host species model, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) in natural, rural and urban habitats in provinces of Seville, Huelva and Cadiz.

e-mail: mferraguti@ebd.csic.es

website: http://martinaferraguti.jimdo.com/

Research Group Webpage: http://161.111.232.204/jordi/people.html#phd

Margarita Mulero Pázmány

My PhD is in the Evolution Ecology department under the supervision of Dr. Juan José Negro, starting in January 2012. The project attempts to fill the gap of knowledge in the use of UAS in conservation biology. It describes for the first time the use of these systems in an immediately applicable way in impact assessment of infrastructures for wildlife and protection of endangered species. Furthermore, it presents UAS as a tool for obtaining high-resolution spatiotemporal information which helps to understand habitat use in rapidly changing human dominated areas and demonstrates that these systems can provide information as valid as the obtained by conventional techniques on the spatial distribution of species in protected areas.

mail: muleromara@hotmail.com

web. http://margaritamulero.wix.com/margaritamulero

Irene Paredes

I commenced my PhD in October 2014 at the Department of Conservation Biology with a grant funded by “La Caixa” under the Severo Ochoa programme on the topic of water quality in the Doñana National Park. For the coming four years I will be working along with my supervisors Andy J. Green, Manuela G. Forero and Francisco Ramírez aiming to address the declining in water quality of the Doñana marshland system using a multidisciplinary approach where stable isotope approaches and quantifications of nutrient levels will be combined within a state-of-the-art GIS framework. The marshes of Doñana National Park are among the largest and well preserved Mediterranean marsh areas in Europe where wildlife and human activities have competed over decades for natural resources. This is particularly the case of water, a key resource that sustain the most important wetland complex in western Europe. However, in recent decades Doñana has suffered a rapid process of eutrophication associated with the development of agriculture and urban areas in the surroundings of the park which has reduced flow and increased nutrient inputs into the entry streams. The spatiotemporal characterization of the isotopic composition of different components of the ecosystem (e.g. plants and invertebrates) will provide valuable information on the specific origin of elements that is rarely obtainable with other methods. We will also analyse the relation between the land use changes occurred over the last decades with a historical data set of nutrient concentration across the marshes. In this context we expect to generate key information that will contribute to adapt the conservation management of the water resources of Doñana and be prepared for the ongoing trend in precipitation reduction affecting the south of the Iberian Peninsula.

Briefly some lines about my background: I completed my BSc and MSc degrees in Environmental Sciences at the Autónoma University of Madrid (Spain) and at Wageningen University (The Netherlands), respectively. I specialized in Aquatic Ecology and worked in different research projects regarding toxic phytoplankton studies, trophic transfers, bioremediation, microplastic pollution and catchment management.

e-mail: ireneparedes@ebd.csic.es

José Manuel Vidal

I’m doing my doctoral thesis “The effects of fire on ants and other arthropods: A study on different depths” at the Department of Ethology and Biodiversity Conservation of the EBD-CSIC. I started in September 2014 with a Severo Ochoa-La Caixa contract and under the supervision of Xim Cerdá and Raphäel Boulay.

Fire is a disturbance that causes large changes in Mediterranean ecosystems, affecting the landscape and the dynamics and structure of communities. Although the main effect of fire is obviously the destruction of flora, indirect effects are diverse and complex. Extensive literature indicates that in fire-prone environments such as the Iberian Peninsula, native plant communities are relatively resilient and recover gradually after a fire. However, available information on the effects on animal communities, especially on invertebrates, is much more scarce.

With this PhD project we want to analyze the consequences of fire on three groups of epigeal arthropods (ants, beetles and spiders) often used as bioindicators for ecosystem recovery. The aim of the thesis is to understand how species, communities and ecosystems respond to environmental changes caused by fire. We will do so by studying the its effects on: 1) Patterns of abundance and species richness of ants, beetles and spiders, 2) functional diversity of ants, beetles and spiders, 3) the dominance relationships in the communities of ants and 4) the use of trophic resources by ants.

e-mail: jmanuelvidal@ebd.csic.es

website: http://jmanuelvidalcordero.wordpress.com/

Alejandro Trillo

I am Alejandro Trillo and I am doing my PhD since February 2014, under Monserrat Vilà supervision at the Integrative Ecology Department. My main aim is study ecological effects of bumblebee spillover from strawberry crops to surrounding habitats.

Habitat loss, fragmentation and isolation reduce diversity of particular species and their function, as it is the case for pollinators. Pollinators are essential for the ecosystem services they provide to sustain wild plant populations, and also fruit and seed production for human consumption. Huelva province is amongst the major producer of strawberry worldwide. To improve their yield, growers place commercial hives of bumblebees. In this thesis, we want to disentangle ecological consequences about this bumblebee spillover. So, we will assess bumblebee abundance in the surrounding habitat related to greenhouse cover, we will answer questions about pathogen prevalence in a landscape context. We will explore population genetics. We will research if spillover affects entomophilous plant fitness. And finally, we will assess if managed pollinators could affect abundance of native species in the crops.

PhD Severo-Ochoa

e-mail: atrillo@ebd.csic.es

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alejandro_Trillo

Vanessa Céspedes Castejón

I am currently at the beginning of my PhD project on the “Ecology of the invasive species Trichocorixa verticalis and their effects on the ecosystem” with a Severo Ochoa grant with Andy J. Green and Marta I. Sánchez who are my supervisors. We aim to increase understanding of the variety of traits observed in aquatic Hemiptera and other insects, as well as their ecophysiology and interactions with the environment, predator-prey interactions, (including those with other Hemiptera, Cladocera and Artemia), besides host-parasite interaction. In addition, we are studying the biogeography and dispersal of Hemiptera, especially the movement of flying adults between wetlands and their movement within wetlands, in particular the distribution patterns of the invasive species Trichocorixa verticalis and the ecological mechanisms that govern its establishment and spread in recipient habitats or regions. The invasion and impact can be expected to depend on a combination of species traits, characteristics of the receptive ecosystem and invasion event factors such as time since invasion and the frequency of introduction. We will apply techniques within a multidisciplinary context, from molecular genetics and from population modeling to isotopic analyses, using theoretical, experimental and observational approaches. Ultimately, our aim is to build the scientific basis needed for the conservation of biological diversity, particular with respect to the impacts of the invasion by T. verticalis in Doñana Ecological Station and ultimately across Europe and the Mediterranean region.

e-mail: vanessa.cespedes@ebd.csic.es,
website: http://vanessacespedes.wix.com/vanessacespedesebd
website: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vanessa_Cespedes

Erica Pacífico

My PhD in the Conservation Biology Department is under supervisor of Dr. José L. Tella. We started working together in March 2014 in an investigation of the deterministic and stochastic effects that may be acting upon the dynamics of the remaining population of the endangered Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari), an endemic species from the Caatinga (Brazilian tropical dry forest), using a multidisciplinary approach with molecular tools, ecological modeling, stable isotope analysis and indices of breeding success.
The Lear’s Macaw nesting and roosting sites are sandstone cliffs walls in the Raso da Catarina Ecoregion, in the Bahia state of Brazil and the Licuri Palm fruit, Syagrus coronata, is their main food item in part of the year. The entire population of 1263 birds (estimated in 2012), of which only 20% are breeders, is concentrated in two localities, and it may be the outcome of a recent demographic increase from the two hundred birds estimated before the 2000s. If the population does not expand geographically, the continuous increase could result in the saturation of environmental resources and generate negative density dependent effects. In this context, to better understand the population dynamics, the following questions need to be answered: Do breeding site and food availability constrain the breeding success and the distribution of the Lear’s Macaw population? Is the genetic diversity of the current population constrained as a result of a genetic bottleneck? Is there sexual bias in the current population? Can the viability of the population be affect by any of these processes?

email: ericapacifico@ebd.csic.es