Vanessa Mata

I am a junior researcher working at the Bat Ecology and Applied Ecology groups. During my PhD I focused on technical developments of metabarcoding techniques for the study of trophic interactions and proved its usefulness in the study of both intra-specific and inter-specific variation in the diet of bats and birds. 

Currently, I am working on many different projects across the world, using metabarcoding for the study of trophic interactions in mammals, birds, fish and insects. I am mostly interested in how communities are structured, as well as how resources are shared among species, the factors that lead to these patterns, and how human-altered landscapes affect these interactions.