ANTHROPOPHIBIAN

P.I. Guillermo Velo-Antón

We will evaluate plastic and adaptive response of amphibians to pervasive anthropogenic landscapes (i.e. urban areas). We will use Salamandra salamandra as study model, because it occurs in both aquatic and terrestrial environments across anthropogenic and natural landscapes. This project will integrate morphological, ecological and several genomic approaches to investigate phenotypic changes in salamander populations, but also their diet and microbiome.

SALOMICS

P.I. Guillermo Velo-Antón

Reproductive mode shifts are important evolutionary adaptations and understanding the genetic and ecological mechanisms underlying these shifts is a central topic in evolutionary biology. Pueriparity (a type of viviparity) encompasses the skipping of the larval stage and the internal development of fully developed juveniles, being a remarkable reproductive mode in amphibians with important ecological and evolutionary consequences. We study a unique natural system, the Salamandra genus, where the shift to pueriparity from larviparity (another type of viviparity) occurred independently five times throughout the evolutionary history of this clade, with two species displaying an exceptional intra-specific diversity in their reproductive mode. We examine the genomic and ecological mechanisms underlying viviparity in a comparative framework.

EVOVIV

P.I. Guillermo Velo-Antón

We develop an integrative framework that relies on genetic, morphometric, developmental and niche modelling approaches, to assess the role of climatic/ecologic factors in the shift of reproductive mode at species level. Specifically, we test if potential environmental drivers (temperature, hydric stress and lithology, amongst others) might explain the historical evolutionary transition to water independence in northern viviparous populations of S. salamandra.

BIODESERTS

P.I. José Carlos Brito

I work in close collaboration with BIODESERTS research group at CIBIO in several ongoing projects studying the evolutionary and landscape processes that shape genetic and phenotypic patterns in desert-ranged taxa across the Sahara and Sahel regions.

NGC

P.I. Silvia Carvalho

This project aims at developing a novel and general framework to assist in delineating priority conservation areas, optimized to preserve biodiversity at different evolutionary levels, while accounting for adaptive potential and evolutionary and spatial dynamics under climate change. We study spatial patterns of diversity of selected Iberian amphibians at different evolutionary levels (inter- and intra-specific) to infer the historical, geographic and environmental factors underlying those patterns, and to map putative adaptive diversity across their range. 

MEDBIODIV

P.I. Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou

This ongoing project focuses on the drivers of biodiversification in the Mediterranean Basin. We extend accumulated knowledge and data, and combine them with innovative analysis tools, to decipher the temporal and spatial frame at which diversification processes operate. We will study a model system of ca. 150 species of amphibians and reptiles, comprising six monophyletic groups.