Biogeography ▪ Conservation ▪ Macroecology ▪ Modelling ▪ Planning

Dr. David Nogués-Bravo

2007-2010
Post doctoral research fellow funded by I3P program (mcndn750@mncn.csic.es)

News.

David Nogués-Bravo comments in Nature on a recently published paper in PNAS
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Research interests

What shapes species diversity?

Unveiling the hidden drivers of biological diversity is a fundamental objective for better understanding the future impacts of Global Change on biodiversity, and to improve, for example, the current predictions of future species extinctions. I have been working on Biogeography, Global Change Biology and Climatology from a macroecological and an integrative perspective in order to clarify the main drivers of biological diversity across space and time. I firmly believe new ideas emerge at the frontiers between sciences.

Research lines

1-Clarifiying the causes behind Late Quaternary Extinctions to have a better understanding of the jeopardy that biodiversity is currently facing, when factors such as human impacts and climate change come together. Phylogeography, Species Distribution Models and ancient DNA.

2- Improving Species Distribution Models, SDMs. I am working on an integrative approach for evaluating european trees’ distributional responses to rapid environmental change. I am currently merging together eco-physiology, population biology and population genetics with SDMs.

3- Patterns of species richness. I am interested in unveiling the effects of Tertiary and Quaternary climatic changes in speciation, extinction and migration.

Other Information

Academic visitor at Oxford and Copenhagen universities (2006-2007)

Co-Editor of the newspaper of the National Museum of Natural Sciences (2008)

My recent paper “Climate change, humans and the extinction of the woolly mammoth” was highligted at: Nature Climate Change Reports, New Scientist, Scientific American, National Geographic News, CNN Plus, El País, Telegraph, Fox News, ABC News, Le Monde, DerStandard, SpektrumDirect and many others. (April 2008)

Recent results

Nogués-Bravo, D., Araújo, M.B., Romdal, T., and Rahbek, C. Scale effects and human impact on the elevational species richness gradients. Nature 453:216-220

Despite two centuries of effort in characterizing environmental gradients of species richness in search of universal patterns, surprisingly few of these patterns have been widely acknowledged. Here we show that when resampling an elevational data set of species richness (achieved by varying grain size and the extent of the gradients sampled), the derived species richness pattern changed progressively from hump-shaped to a monotonic pattern as the scale of extent diminished. Scale effects alone gave rise to as many conflicting patterns of species richness as had previously been reported in the literature (we review and analyze more than 400 papers), and scale effects lent significantly different statistical support to competing diversity hypotheses.

Publications

  1. Nogués-Bravo D., Ollemülher R, Batra P. & Araújo MB Footprint of Late Quaternary Climate Changes on Megafauna Extinctions (to be submmited soon)

  2. Nogués-Bravo, D. Predicting the past distribution of species’ climatic niches. In review
  3. Sanz, R., Pulido, F. & Nogués-Bravo, D. Predicting mechanisms across scales: amplified effects of abiotic constraints on the recruitment of yew (Taxus baccata). In review.
  4. Triantis, K.A., Nogués-Bravo, D., Hortal, J., Borges, P.A.V., Adsersen, H., Fernández-Palacios, J.M. Araújo, M.B., Whittaker. R.J. 2008 Measurements of area and the (island) species–area relationship: new directions for an old pattern. Oikos in press.
  5. Nogués-Bravo, D., Araújo, M.B., Romdal, T., and Rahbek, C. 2008 Scale effects and human impact on the elevational species richness gradients. Nature 453:216-220
  6. Nogués-Bravo, D., Rodríguez, J., Hortal, J., Batra, P. & Araújo MB 2008 Climate change and the extinction of the mammoth. PLOS Biology. 6: e79
  7. Araújo, M.B., Nogués-Bravo, D., Diniz-Filho, J.A.F., Haywood, A.M., Valdes, P.J. & Rahbek, C. 2008 Quaternary climate changes explain diversity among reptiles and amphibians. Ecography 31: 8–15 [Selection of Faculty of 1000 Biology]
  8. Araújo, M.B., Nogués-Bravo, D., Reginster, I., Rounsevell, M., & Whittaker, R.J. 2008 Exposure of European biodiversity to changes in human-induced pressures. Environmental Science and Policy 11: 38-45
  9. Nogués-Bravo, D., Araújo, MB, Lasanta, T. & López-Moreno JI 2008 Climate change in Mediterranean mountains during the XXIst century. Ambio 37: 380-385
  10. Körner, C., Donoghue, M., Fabbro, T., Häuser, C., Nogués-Bravo, D., Kalin Arroyo, M.T., Soberon, J., Speers, L., Spehn, E.M., Sun, H., Tribsch, A. Tykarski, P., & N. Zbinden. 2007. Creative use of mountain biodiversity databases: the Kazbegi Research Agenda of GMBA-DIVERSITAS. Mountain Research and Development 27(2): 276–281
  11. Nogués-Bravo, D., Araújo, M.B., Martinez-Rica, J.P. & Errea, M.P. 2007. Exposure of global mountain systems to climate change during the 21st century. Global Environmental Change 17: 420-428, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.11.007
  12. López-Moreno, J.I.; Nogués-Bravo, D., J.Chueca & A. Julian Change of topographical control on cirque glaciers extent since the little ice age. Geophysical Research Letters. Vol.33,No.24,L24505
  13. Nogués-Bravo, D., 2007 Assessing the effect of environmental and anthropogenic factors on land-cover diversity in a Mediterranean mountain environment. Area: The journal of the Royal Geographical Society 38.4, 432–444
  14. Whittaker R.J., Nogués-Bravo, D.. and Araújo, M.B. 2007 Geographic gradients of species richness: a test of the water-energy conjecture of Hawkins et al. (2003) using European data for five taxa. Global Ecology and BiogeographyGlobal Ecology and Biogeography, 16(1) 76-84
  15. López-Moreno, J.I., Nogués-Bravo, D., Chueca, F. and Julian, A. 2006. Topographical context and glacier development. Earth Surface and Landform Processes 31(12): 1585 – 1594
  16. Nogués-Bravo, D.. & Aguirre, A. 2006 Modelling the spatial distribution and habitat selection of Dupont’s Lark Chershopilus duponti in northern Spain. Ardeola 53(1): 55-68
  17. Nogués-Bravo, D.. & Araújo, M.B. 2006 Species richness, area and climate correlates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 15: 452–460.
  18. López-Moreno, J.I. and Nogués-Bravo, D. 2006 Interpolating local show depth data: an evaluation of methods. Hydrological Processes., 20 (10): 2217-2232
  19. López-Moreno and Nogués-Bravo, D. 2005 Mapping the spatial distribution of snow pack in the Spanish Pyrenees using a Generalised Additive Model. 19 (16): Hydrological Processes 3167-3176
  20. Nogués-Bravo, D. and Martínez-Rica (2004) Factors controlling the spatial species richness pattern of four groups of terrestrial vertebrates in an area between two different biogeographic regions in northern Spain. Journal of Biogeography 31: 629-641.
  21. Nogués-Bravo, D., Zabalza, J. y Martinez-Rica, J.P. (2003) Using NDVI to determine the effects of grazing on activity and production of vegetation in the Rangelands of Lesotho. African Journal of Rangelands and Forage Science, 20: 117-130.
  22. Zabalza, J., Nogués-Bravo, D.. y Martinez-Rica, J.P. (2003). Spatial distribution of NDVI values in the Lesotho Rangelands: vegetation responses to climatic variation. African Journal of Rangelands and Forage Science 20: 89-100.