Research lines
Island systems represent unparalleled laboratories for studying how major ecological and evolutionary processes shaped wild bee diversity. We combine molecular techniques with geometric morphometry and ecological niche modelling to characterize wild bee diversity and its response to the main drivers of decline (land-use change, exotic species, pathogens, and climate change)
Canarian wild bees diversity
In our laboratory we aim to characterize the diversity of wild bees by an integrative taxonomy approach. We use molecular markers combined with geometric morphometry and ENM for inventorying wild bee diversity. The results will allow us to understand the state of the bee populations, as well as the vulnerability of the different species to anthropogenic impacts in order to establish appropriate conservation measures.
Evolution of the Canarian bees
The Canary Islands archipelago has a high geological, climatic and ecosystemic diversity, which makes it an unparalleled laboratory for studying the colonisation and speciation patterns of bees. The archipelago shows a high proportion of endemic species and interesting co-evolutionary phenomena between endemic lineages such as Melecta and Amegilla and their cleptoparasitic bees Anthophora and Thyreus.
Wild bees and global change
In our lab, we are carrying out several projects to study the response of Canary Island wild bees to several anthropogenic impacts such as climate change, land-use change, pathogen and competence with managed or exotic species that have arrived in the archipelago in recent years. To do so, we assessed the different impacts at different scales: at the community level we measured changes in the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of the communities, and at the species level we analysed specific responses such as changes in reproductive success, body size or nutritional lipid composition.