2008
Visiting PhD student (supervised by Dr. Mar Cabeza)
Metapopulation Research Group, University of Helsinki
Research interests
The main interest of my research is in conservation planning. In my masters thesis I assessed the effectiveness of Finnish protected area network to represent species by comparing the distribution of reserves and areas of high conservation value, looking for possible gaps in the protection level of species. During my PhD project I am focusing on the effects of climate change on species distributions and on the impacts that this has on species protection.
It has been predicted that species will shift their ranges towards poles and higher altitudes as a result of a warming climate, and the first signs of this global change in species distributions have already been recorded in many places of the world. This has created an increasing concern of species moving outside reserves, thus possibly foiling the efforts put on species protection in the past. In my PhD project I will assess the possible changes that will take place in Finland and evaluate the robustness of the reserve network against the changing climate. Finally I will attempt to develope reserve selection methods that identify important areas for the conservation of species subjected to climate change.
To see the CV at the Metapopulation Research Group click here
