Biogeography Lab at BiBiCI-USC
FACULTY
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Dr. Andrés Baselga Andrés Baselga is a biogeographer aiming to understand why biodiversity is distributed across sites and clades in the way it is. From an initial interest in beetle biodiversity, Andrés Baselga began its research career by conducting a doctoral thesis on the leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) of Galicia (supervised by Francisco Novoa, USC), focusing mainly on taxonomy and faunistics. From his postdoctoral stage (supervised by Miguel Ángel Alonso-Zarazaga and Miguel B. Araújo, MNCN-CSIC), he has addressed research questions related to biogeography and macroecology, trying to contribute to the knowledge of the patterns of biological diversity and the processes that generate them. Back at USC (first hired as a Research Fellow by the Isidro Parga Pondal and Ramón y Cajal programs, and currently as an Associate Professor), he has led a research group with two major research lines: (1) the development of new methodologies for the analysis of biological diversity, particularly beta diversity or dissimilarity patterns, and (2) the integration of phylogenetic information in macroecological analyses, trying to find new macroecological and macroevolutionary patterns that allow us to discern the processes that govern biological diversity. |
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Dr. Carola Gómez-Rodríguez Carola Gómez-Rodríguez is a macroecologist interested in the processes structuring biological diversity at different spatial and temporal scales. Her doctoral thesis focused on the spatiotemporal dynamics of amphibian communities in Doñana National Park (EBD-CSIC, University of Salamanca, 2009). As a postdoc at the University of Vigo, she worked on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in direct collaboration with the European Commission. In 2013 she joined A. Vogler's Lab at the Natural History Museum in London (United Kingdom), where she contributed to the development of mitometagenomics for the integrative assessment of biodiversity patterns. In 2016 she joined the Biogeography Lab (BiBiCI) at the University of Santiago de Compostela, where she was appointed Associate Professor at the Department of Functional Biology in 2020. She also serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Animal Ecology and as a Member of the Grants Committee of the British Ecological Society (BES). |
LAB MANAGER
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Dr. M. Olalla Lorenzo-Carballa Olalla got her PhD at the University of Vigo in 2009. Her research has focused mainly on evolutionary biology, population genetics, taxonomy and conservation of dragonflies and damselflies, employing a multidisciplinary approach (fieldwork studies, laboratory experiments and a range of molecular techniques) to answer her research questions. After a period as a postdoctoral research assistant, she decided to take advantage of the numerous skills acquired throughout the years as a researcher and pursue a career as laboratory research technician. Olalla has joined BiBiCi in March 2022 as Laboratory Manager, to provide support to the group PIs in their scientific research tasks, in order to enhance and increase effectiveness and efficiency of laboratory processes and procedures. Her main role is to provide support in the coordination and distribution of the molecular systematics laboratory experimental work, in the supervision of the predoctoral staff in their learning tasks, as well as in the many administrative tasks associated with a research group. |
POSTDOCS
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Dr. Jose A. Sanabria-Fernández Jose A. Sanabria-Fernandez developed his PhD at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and during that period, Jose designed metrics to estimate the resilience of temperate rocky reefs. Currently, he has been awarded a Margarita Salas postdoctoral research fellowship (2022-2024) from the University of Barcelona, to continue his research at the Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement de Paris (Sorbonne Université) and the BiBiCI Lab – (USC). In the current era of global change, Jose's research aims to understand the mechanisms that maintain and foster the resilience of natural ecosystems. Specifically, during his postdoctoral project, he is shedding light on the effects of global change on the resilience of marine communities using machine learning tools. In terms of project leadership, Jose led research projects, such as RESEALIENT and RESTATES, and co-led INBIOMAR, INBIOMAR II, and INBIOMAR III. Also, he is a member and trainer of the worldwide citizen science program Reef Life Survey to quantify marine biodiversity. He applied the Reef Life Survey methodology in some countries, such as Chile, France, Morocco, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Spain. He also is implicated in international working groups, such as the Marine Biodiversity Monitoring for Europe and the ICES Working Group on Resilience and Marine Ecosystem Services. |
PhD STUDENTS
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Sara Martínez-Santalla I finished my Biology degree in the university of Santiago de Compostela (USC) in 2016. In 2018 I completed a master’s degree in Statistic Techniques in the same university, looking for analytic tools for biological questions. My final project was centred in a method to model the decay of community similarity across distance. Currently, I am doing my PhD under the supervision of Andrés Baselga and Carola Gómez-Rodríguez about distributional patterns, systematics and phylogeography of the Arion Iberian slugs. I am supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through grant BES-2017-081643 (associated to CGL2016-76637-P). |
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Victoria Formoso-Freire She got her Biology Degree from the University of A Coruña (UDC) in 2019. She then studied the Interuniversity Master's Degree in Terrestrial Biodiversity: Characterisation, Conservation and Management at the UDC, with a Master's Thesis on predictive models of invasive species distribution. In 2017 she began her career as a science communicator, working for various museums and other public institutions, conducting dynamic workshops for children and adults. In 2021 she worked as a Research Technician in the AtlanticPOSitiVE project under the supervision of Carola Gómez-Rodríguez and Andrés Baselga. She focused on identifying the potential areas of range expansion of the invasive species Vespa velutina. Currently she is doing her PhD (associated to the MacroBeetle Project, PID2020-112935GB-100) under the supervision of Andrés Baselga and Carola Gómez-Rodríguez, about the study of Coleoptera as a model for analysing niche processes and dispersal limitation in macroecology. |
PAST MEMBERS
Ramiro Martín Devasa, PhD student
Adrian Castro-Insua, PhD student
Andrea Freijeiro, PhD student
Kirsten E. Miller, postdoc
Erika Shimabukuro, postdoc