José Carlos Brito, PhD

Affiliations:

CIBIO, Research Center for Biodiversity and Genetic Resources

Porto University

Area:

Biodiversity, Arid Regions, distribution, evolutionary, landscape processes, conservation planning

Website:

http://cibio.up.pt/cibio.php?content=members&menu=members&member=jcbrito

Google:

"José Brito"

Bio:

My early scientific activities as research technician (1994-1998) addressed the distribution of biodiversity and conservation planning of an endemic lizard (Lacerta schreiberi) of the Iberian Peninsula. Innovative research was focused on the early use of Species Distribution Models (SDM) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for biogeographical analyses and conservation planning. Research during the PhD thesis at the University of Lisbon (1998-2003) aimed the biological characterisation of a threatened and virtually unknown Iberian viper (Vipera latastei) for conservation planning.

I engaged as a post-doctoral researcher at CIBIO (University of Porto; 2003-2008) multiple collaborations with Spanish, Moroccan, Algerian and Serbian researchers to expand the research on vipers, focusing on geographical variation patterns in biological parameters and in the novel combination of Geostatistics, GIS and SDM for studying biogeographic patterns and evolutionary and landscape processes at multiple scales using morphological and molecular markers: Iberian Peninsula and Maghreb ( V. latastei ), triple-contact zone of Burgos ( V. aspis, V. latastei and V. seoanei ), and Balkans Peninsula ( V. ammodytes ). Research on deserts and arid regions started as early as 2000, and expanded during the post-doctoral activities at CIBIO, where currently I am an Assistant Researcher (2008-2013). Innovative research using contemporary spatial and molecular tools has been developed in regions where biodiversity is poorly known, due to general remoteness and civil unrest, but where biodiversity hotspots are be found, such as isolated mountain-sky islands. The research has been focused on three main topics: biodiversity distribution, evolutionary and landscape processes, and conservation planning. A total of 23 fieldwork missions in Africa have been developed, totalling about 500 work-days, mostly in Mauritania and Morocco. The research efforts have been rewarded with increasingly exceptional achievements during the last years, including, among other things:

1) the ability to attract competitive funding;

2) the successful advanced training of human resources, including PhD and MSc students;

3) the technology transfer and collaborations with international scientists, including researchers from Universities in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and Senegal, and local Protected Areas, such as the UNESCO World Heritage PN Banc d’Arguin;

4) the award of two grants by the highly prestigious National Geographic Society for the investigation of biogeographic and evolutionary patterns in isolated vertebrates from Mauritania, using Nile crocodiles as a case study, and phylogeographic patterns in desert lizards, respectively.

Since 2011, I am the principal investigator of the BIODESERTS – Biodiversity of Deserts and Arid Regions.
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