Pedro Vaz

Biography

"I am a researcher in applied ecology funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology with experience in a range of topics. I have a joint appointment between InBIO (at CIBIO-University of Évora and at Centre for Applied Ecology Baeta Neves-U. of Lisbon), in Portugal, and the Doñana Biological Station, in Spain. Right now, my main research interests are (i) connectivity modeling, focusing on how we can enhance landscape permeability to movement of wildlife species, and (ii) plant-animal interactions, which lead to critical ecological services such as seed dispersal and pollination, both threatened by the global change scenario and evolving anthropogenic activities. Overall, I’ve been working in humanized landscapes mostly, focusing on the patterns, mechanisms, and consequences of ecological interactions. I am also a postdoctoral alumni from the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis campus, where I used statistical modeling to explore relationships between climate change-derived environmental stressors and the biological performance of fish. Previously, my primary work has been on fire ecology, namely the consequences of wildfire for streams in forests. I love fieldwork and I like to use R, GIS, remote sensing, databases, and technologies in general. For some incomprehensible reason, I further like to deal with complex data, just for the epiphany of revealing simple patterns!"

Research Interest

Right now, my main research interests are (i) connectivity modeling, focusing on how we can enhance landscape permeability to movement of wildlife species, and (ii) plant-animal interactions, which lead to critical ecological services such as seed dispersal and pollination, both threatened by the global change scenario and evolving anthropogenic activities.