Pedro Tarroso

My research is focused mainly on the relation of space and time with the evolution of the biodiversity patterns in Europe and northern Africa.

With fossil pollen I was able to reconstruct past climate in the Iberian Peninsula and study the dynamics of species past distributions. Although recently my research has been related to broad study areas and macro-scale processes, I have studied micro-scale processes related to evolutionary questions about the contact zone of the three Iberian vipers. My previous work was focused on conservation in several Portuguese nature parks, mostly related to the endangered Iberian lynx. There my sensibility for the difficulty of applying the scientific knowledge in the field has increased along with my field experience.

Currently I'm working in a project dealing with the integration of molecular and spatial distribution data at inter and intra-specific levels for conservation planning of the Iberian herpetofauna.

I joined the Biodeserts group since its origin. My future research will be towards diversity, niche conservatism and evolutionary mechanisms in arid environments. The deserts pose an interesting challenge to study questions related to those topics as biodiversity often concentrates in small islands surrounded by inhospitable habitat. Moreover, studying deserts may provide answers to deal with the predicted climate warming for the next century.
With my work I hope I might contribute to increase the general knowledge about the biodiversity that surround us and to generate information that might be applied to preserve the natural processes.