The Spatial Ecology Group focuses its research on the
ecology and evolution of species interactions across natural and
anthropogenic landscapes - with an emphasis on plant-animal interactions
(herbivory, pollination and seed dispersal). We also seek to apply the fundamental insights derived from our research for landscape and natural resources management policies, using an adaptive co-managment framework.
Research lines
1. The role of animal movement on plant-animal interactions (pollination and seed dispersal)
Plants establish mutualisms with animals to do one of
the few things that they are not able to do on their own: move. While
movement lays at the very heart of two key plant reproductive processes,
pollination and seed dispersal, it has rarely been incorporated into
the analysis of its ecology and evolution. In the Laboratory of Spatial
ecology, we pay particular attention to the role of animal movement
and foraging decisions in shaping the outcome of these two mutualistic
interactions:
1.2. Animal movement as key determinant of propagule dispersal... read more
2. Ecology and management of isolated ecosystems and fragmented landscapes (islands, wetlands and forest fragments)
Populations inhabiting naturally isolated
ecosystems, such as islands and wetlands, are particularly sensitive to
demographic and genetic effects – and, for that reasons, dependent on
colonization events that rely on long-distance dispersal... read more
3. Mechanisms regulating the spread and impact of biological invasions
3. Mechanisms regulating the spread and impact of biological invasions
Invasive species pose a paradox for ecologists and evolutionary biologists. A species evolved in a foreign ecosystem should lack the adaptations necessary to persist in the environment and biota encountered in its alien ranges; yet, some of them develop expansive population dynamics that displace local species and disturb ecosystem processes. This dynamics seems to contradict the basic tenets of evolutionary theory... read more
4. Adaptive co-management
Traditional management of nature reserves and natural resources is based on unique-target, control-based strategies, consolidated by means of rigid institutional arrangements and organizational structures. Such management approaches tend to result in policy making cycles that repetitively aim at “domesticating” nature, characterized by their inability to learn from and adapt to the environmental crisis generated by their own functioning... read more
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