Laura Torrent
PhD Student
Details
Position
PhD Student
Member type
Students
Degree
MSc
Address
CIBIO-InBIO, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
Groups
I did my Bachelor in Catalonia and the project focused on hibernating bat assemblages due to tourism impact in a Natura 2000 site in Western Poland. My MSc in the Czech Republic focused on the importance of lakes for bat conservation in Amazonian rainforests using autonomous recorders.
My main scientific interests are bat ecology and conservation, and I am captivated with bat echolocations and bioacoustics. For my PhD I aim to describe the bat fauna from the highly diverse continental region of Equatorial Guinea, Central Africa. I will use an integrative approach combining species taxonomic description with ecological and morphological traits and spatial analysis with cutting edge metabarcoding technology to characterize bat communities based on diet and habitat. Moreover, with this thesis I plan to develop a first bat conservation plan for the local governmental organization. The thesis will be done under the supervision of Dr. Hugo Rebelo (CIBIO-InBIO), Dr. Javier Juste Ballesta (Doñana Biological Station (CSIC)) and Dr. Adrià López-Baucells (Natural Science Museum of Granollers).
Since 2013 I have been collaborating with several bat research teams and organizations in Catalonia, Poland, Mexico, Madagascar, and Equatorial Guinea carrying out surveys with mist-nets, radiotracking, bioacoustics and bat boxes, as well as environmental education, and capacity building.