Researches | Guillermo Fandos

Animal movement in dynamic landscapes

Sun, 24 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Using individual marking , and an array of state-of-the-art methodologies such as camera traps , GPS trackers, stable isotopes or molecular sequencing, we can monitor species behaviour, movements and abundance. This is essential to fill knowledge gaps on how species distribute in space and the importance of life-history traits, therefore gathering fundamental information to increase our understanding of species response to global environmental change.

Biodiversity conservation and global change

Sun, 24 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Habitat degradation and climate changes are both known to be altering the distributions and abundances of animals and plants throughout the world. In current global changes, we should not only identify species range shifts or measure the decrease in species numbers and population sizes but also anticipate: which species will be in trouble (or not), why, when and where?. My goal in this theme seeks to integrate functional ecology, evolutionary ecology and biogeography to improve our understanding of the synergistic effects of climate, land-use change and different anthropogenic threats on biodiversity and to build reliable future predictions of where species are likely to occur.

Therefore, an important tool for my research is the use of species distribution models (‘SDM’), and their use as a decision-support tool in conservation. I develop these SDMs by combining species distributions, environmental data, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as well as different modelling approaches and across different spatial scales. Much of my research aims to identify the climate and anthropogenic factors that are responsible for observed variations in species distributions and abundances. For example, I have used ring-recovery data and statistical modelling methods to understand better the seasonal drivers of migratory bird distribution (Fandos and Tellería et al. 2017; Fandos and Tellería 2020), and the effect of climate change on the distribution of different birds species (Tellería et al. 2016, Tellería et al. 2020b). Besides, integrating genetic data with these distribution models allowed me to investigate the evolutionary and ecological processes that shape birds ecological niches across multiple species (Friis et al. 2018). In general, together with other colleagues, I am trying to promote the right use of existing modelling tools by proposing a standard protocol for reporting SDMs (Zurell et al. 2020).

Urbanisation is spreading rapidly at a global scale, and assessing patterns of biodiversity change due to anthropogenic threats is therefore crucial for conserving biodiversity. In that sense, my research attempts to fill this gap. I investigated the incursions of domestic carnivores from urban areas to the surrounding habitats (Fandos et al. 2012), and I have been involved in investigating the role of urban parks in the bat community (Tena et al. 2020). Moreover, in previous work (Tellería et al. 2020a), we showed how transboundary differences in relation to hunting pressure and agricultural intensification, can explain species population decline in Spain. More recently, I am using dynamic occupancy models that account for detectability and can provide a better assessment of population dynamics, and even investigate mechanistic hypotheses beyond species distribution patterns (Briscoe et al. 2021; Fandos et al. 2021).

Improving biodiversity monitoring and modelling

Sun, 24 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Global biodiversity is declining rapidly, largely as a result of human activities. Effective policy and adaptive management strategies in the face of global change require well-designed biodiversity monitoring as well as the anticipation of future changes. However, efficient and robust monitoring schemes are costly to maintain over large areas and many years. In contrast, citizen science data is being generated at an unprecedented rate. However, opportunistic citizen science data comes with huge challenges and caveats. These data are characterised by having neither a consistent structure nor a fixed sampling protocol leading to significant spatial and temporal biases and, therefore, require careful consideration in ecological modelling and conservation research. My general interest is the development and application of quantitative tools to answer ecological questions and address conservation problems. INCISE

Intraspecific variation and population dynamics

Sun, 24 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Although many ecologists use the species as the unit of analysis in numerous global change and conservation biology studies, there is ample evidence that species are not uniform entities, and variation among individuals and populations influences species and community dynamics. Individuals from different populations may have distinct phenotypic responses to environmental conditions, and variation among individuals can influence demographic traits directly as well as via feedbacks from population dynamics to individual life history and vice versa (Fandos et al. 2020).

I analysed intraspecific seasonal niche dynamics comparing migratory and sedentary populations (Fandos and Tellería 2020) and individuals (Fandos et al. 2020). In particular, I analysed if the different individuals and populations track their climatic niches when they move from breeding to wintering areas and vice versa since different migratory behaviours experience vastly different climatic conditions throughout the year. Moreover, I contributed to the analysis of intraindividual variability of numerous traits in plants to found that plastic changes of intra-individual variability are an essential determinant of whether species will be able to cope with climatic change (March-Salas et al. 2021).