Patrícia Alexandra Santos Rodrigues

My research interests are broad and include conservation science, vertebrate ecology, systematic conservation planning, and the links between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation, in tropical areas.

I joined the APPLECOL and TROPBIO groups in 2011, as a research fellow, under a partnership between Tropical Research Institute (IICT, Lisbon) and the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO-InBIO, Porto). Under the scope of the partnership, I have been working with Angolan mammal collections housed in IICT. Specifically, I have been using the information on historic distribution of Angolan mammal species, to (i) identify their biogeographic patterns and assess the dominant environmental correlates; (ii) model potential habitat for the species, under current conditions and future climate projections; and (iii) assess the adequacy of the current protected area network; with the ultimate goal of contributing with baseline knowledge to aid systematic conservation planning in the country.

Since 2012, I have also been collaborating in a FCT funded research project (PTDC/AFR/117785/2010) that addresses the socio-economic and environmental impacts and challenges posed by cashew expansion in West Africa (Guinea-Bissau), where I am studying the effects of cashew expansion on mammal and bird communities.

I have graduated in Biology from University of Aveiro in 2007 and I hold a Masters’ degree in Conservation Biology from University of Lisbon (2010). Previously, I have worked at the CBA research center, under a project that related “farmland abandonment, fire and the responses of biodiversity” (ABAFOBIO - PTDC/AMB/73901/2006), during which I studied landscape changes and the temporal dynamics of oak forests in a mountain parish undergoing farmland abandonment. I have also worked as field technician in SPVS, monitoring the effects of dam construction on a wolf population (in Sabor, Bragança) and in EGA Consultores de Vida Silvestre, monitoring wild ungulate populations (in Moncayo Natural Park, Spain).

Apart my interests in conservation science and ecology I am also interested in the study of the global patterns of linguistic diversity!