Integrative Biogeography and Global Change Group

The Integrative Biogeography and Global Change group studies the fields of biogeography, conservation biology, evolution, global change biology, and macroecology. Research in the group is driven by three unifying questions:

1) how did past climate changes affect (the origin, diversification, and distribution of) biodiversity?

2) how might current and future environmental changes affect biodiversity?

3) how can biodiversity be conserved given current and future challenges?

The group seeks integration of large climate and species distributions databases with descriptions of behavioural and physiological traits of species, molecular phylogenies, and the fossil record. Most research involves generation of molecular data for evolutionary analyses, and statistical analyses of ecological data, including data mining, bioclimatic modelling and simulations. The group has produced many studies and publications on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystems. The group has been responsible for projects such as: Iberia Change - Forecasting impacts of climate change on Iberian biodiversity; Ecochange - Challenges in assessing and forecasting biodiversity and ecosystem changes in Europe.