What do galaxies and molecular structures have in common? Or trade between countries, communications on the Internet, and trophic relationships within ecosystems? One answer is that they all involve nodes interconnected by flows of mass and energy. In other words, they are networks. The study of networks has revealed intriguing regularities. For example, it is very common to find networks whose . . . [ Read More ]
Miguel B. Araujo Lab – Resumo de investigação passada e reflexão sobre investigação futura
Quando um leigo me pergunta sobre o objeto da minha investigação, nem sempre é fácil de explicar numa frase. Na verdade, quem trabalha em biodiversidade trabalha com sistemas complexos. Logo, para entender estes sistemas, para os modelar, para projetar dinâmicas futuras, são diversas as ramificações por onde se estende a investigação. Consciente da dificuldade em sintetizar a diversidade muitos . . . [ Read More ]
First call AQUACOSM-PLUS
AQUACOSM-plus offers funding for mesocosm experiments through a unique collaborative international project, representing a full cross section of aquatic ecosystems. It is a good opportunity to visit and work in our Iberian-wide distributed pond mesocosm facility set up to examine the effects of climate change on aquatic biodiversity. For more information read here. . . . [ Read More ]
Biogeographic analysis of trophic structures reveals the signature of climate and people
Community trophic structure typical of seasonal tropical climates https://youtu.be/1WwGVnNFJOY In Spanish here Climate determines the arquitectures of trophic structures and human activities simplify them. This is the main conclusion of a study published today in Nature Communications, by Manuel Mendoza and Miguel B. Araújo. Using the geographic distributions and feeding . . . [ Read More ]
Iberian Ponds
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Conference: Community Ecology for the 21st Century
Photo by Miguel Araújo (Guys fulvus in Monfrague) Of the many problems confronting society on the veil of the 21st Century, one of the gravest is the likelihood that modern humans may so change the intrincate workings of the earth's ecosystems that they will no longer be able to provide the support that human culture requires for its existence. Yet, our ability to understand and predict the . . . [ Read More ]
Postdoc: Modelling food web architectures under climate change
Starting date: July-August 2016 Duration: 36 months Stipend: EUR 1495 per month (free of tax) plus social security. Other subsidies: EUR 750 per year to participate in scientific meetings and conferences, EUR 300-600 for inbound and outbound travelling. Background Can we predict the effects of climate changes on biodiversity? Existing models are based on several weak assumptions, generally . . . [ Read More ]
Are biotic interactions predictable?
UK grassland trophic web. Artwork from food webs.org Even if serious gaps in knowledge of biodiversity remain, much progress has been made in determining how many different types of organisms exist, what evolutionary relationships connect different lineages to a common ancestor, and where different species are distributed. Much less is known about the types of interactions that exist among . . . [ Read More ]
Cátia Pereira obtained a PhD studentship
Congratulations to Cátia Pereira who obtained a PhD studentship funded through the extremely competitive Portuguese FCT programme. Cátia’s project seeks to improve understanding of climate change effects on aquatic food webs using the lab’s unique mesocosm experimental facility. Cátia will read for her PhD at the University of Copenhagen’s Natural History Museum in a partnership involving CMEC, . . . [ Read More ]
New Marie Curie Fellow – Miguel Matias
Congratulations to Miguel Matias who just started a Marie Curie Fellowship at Miguel Araújo lab. Miguel is an ecologist trying to understand the mechanisms underlying species’ responses to changes in their natural habitats. His research integrates empirical, experimental and theoretical approaches ranging from bacterial microcosms to macro-ecological models (see his publications here). In 2011, . . . [ Read More ]