Conservation Biology
Conservation planning: Protected areas are the fundamental tool to protected biodiversity and large scale planning is needed for their effectiveness. I study the relevance of protected areas in protecting plant biodiversity under present and future climate and land use scenarios, to achieve the targets of protected area expansion stated by the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the Global Biodiversity Framework.
Conservation management: Climatic changes, habitat degradation, alien species invasion and other processes are reshaping communities and ecosystems. Understanding spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity within and across protected areas is needed to improve their conservation capacity. I study the effects of protected area zonation and management for biodiversity conservation and develop rewilding scenarios to ensure the persistence of ecosystem functioning and biodiversity conservation.
Biogeography and Macroecology
Island biogeography and ecology: From Darwin onwards islands attract scientists as model systems to investigate the biogeographical processes of migration, diversification and extinction. I am studying plant species diversity patterns on islands, from small-scale to large-scale perspectives. I am particularly focused on understanding how climate and land use changes are affecting small island biodiversity hotspots.
Macroecology: Biodiversity is fundamentally dependent on spatial distance (a proxy for abiotic drivers as climate, geology), as well evolutionary and ecological processes. I am focusing on large-scale patterns of plant diversity to quantify the role of natural gradients and anthropogenic factors in controlling diversity partitioning across geographical and ecological components.
