Manuel Mendoza García

Biography

"My original background is fundamentally in paleoecology and ecomorphology, and secondarily in theoretical ecology. Subsequently, however, I have also made some research in areas as diverse as theoretical evolution, marine mammals ethology, biogeography, life-history evolution or even fishery management, always using a modeling approach, either statistical, data-mining, Individual-based, equation-based or using evolutionary algorithms. After the presentation of my thesis in 2002, at the University of Málaga (Spain), I was awarded a two years Fulbright Grant at Brown University (USA). Since then I have worked as a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES), the Catalan Institute of Paleontology (ICP, at the Autonomous University of Barcelona), the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and now at the ‘Rui Nabeiro’ Biodiversity Chair."

Research Interest

"I’m particularly interested in how the ecological communities respond to the environmental changes, how these changes affect the ecosystem functioning and the fundamental characteristics of the communities, such as their trophic structure or their biodiversity. Other question that particularly interests me is how the feedback between evolution and ecology affects both processes, and determine the extent to which they could be considered a single process. Other major research interests, more general, include modeling, computer simulations and self-organized systems."