Prof. Henrique M. Pereira discusses the role biodiversity plays in relation to climate change and presents the work and results of the Theoretical Ecology and Biodiversity Change Group.
The group studies the dynamics of biodiversity change and its consequences for ecosystem services using a combination of theoretical and empirical approaches. Current research projects include studying the impacts of farmland abandonment and fire regime change on biodiversity, the development of spatially-explicit models for population viability analysis in fragmented landscapes, and scenarios for biodiversity change. The group is also involved in the development of global and regional monitoring schemes to improve our understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem services change. Finally, the group has been involved in environmental assessments of the condition of biodiversity and ecosystem services from the local to the global scale.