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, later as an Associate Professor, and currently as a Full 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 is the coordinator of the Research Group BiBiCI and the Teaching Innovation Group Biodiversity with R. More info .-. Publications .-. Open Science and Science Communication |
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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. In 2024 she was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Zoology Department. |
PhD STUDENTS
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Mauro Quintanilla-Viana Mauro Quintanilla Viana graduated in Biomedical Engineering from the UPM and completed a Master’s degree in Zoology at the UCM, specializing in Arthropod Zoology. His researches have been focused in arthropod ecology, biogeography and soil fauna. He is currently pursuing his PhD in USC, integrating unified models and metabarcoding to infer the processes governing biological diversity in beetles, as part of the Meta-Beetle project under the supervision of Andrés Baselga and Carola Gómez-Rodríguez. |
PAST MEMBERS
Victoria Formoso-Freire, PhD student
Sara Martínez-Santalla, PhD student
Ramiro Martín Devasa, PhD student
Adrian Castro-Insua, PhD student
Andrea Freijeiro, PhD student
Kirsten E. Miller, postdoc
Erika Shimabukuro, postdoc
Jose Sanabria-Fernández, postdoc