Raquel Vasconcelos
Post-Doc Researcher
My PhD focused on using integrative approaches to revise the systematics of the reptiles of the Cape Verde Islands and on combining predicted species richness with genetic diversity to optimise reserve design in that archipelago.
The collected data clarified taxonomy, provided inferences of colonization and speciation processes and established the first atlas of the capeverdian herpetofauna, and proposed protected areas to conserve all evolutionarily significant units of endemic reptiles.
My post-doc also focus on the conservation of genetic diversity in insular biodiversity hotspot systems, this time using Socotra archipelago as model. The idea is to use a multi-disciplinary approach integrating phylogenetics, geostatistics, species distribution modelling, and reserve selection algorithms to assist the conservation of the genetic diversity of reptiles under climate change scenarios on that world heritage site.
