Carlos Rodríguez Fernandes

Group Leader

Phylogeography Conservation Genetics Molecular Systematics Landscape Genetics

I received a Ph.D. in Biology (Phylogeography and Molecular Systematics) from Cardiff University (Wales, UK) in 2005 and I am currently a researcher in wildlife genetics and Principal Investigator of the WildGen research group in CE3C.

Working in wildlife genetics means that my research interests and activities include phylogeography, population genetics, molecular systematics, and landscape genetics, towards the conservation and management of wildlife.

Our research group uses genetics and genomics to investigate a wide array of questions in species of wild biodiversity.

Examples of topics of recent and ongoing research are:

i) phylogeography and evolutionary history of Palearctic biodiversity

ii) development of molecular markers for non-invasive and population genetic investigations of mammals

iii) studying hybridization in a conservation genetics context

iv) definition of evolutionary significant units in threatened species

v) analyses of natural and human-mediated colonisations and range expansions within the framework of, respectively, conservation status assessments and projects on biological invasions

vi) landscape genetics to evaluate wildlife population connectivity across anthropogenic barriers and between protected areas

International collaborations include Tom Gilbert (University of Copenhagen), Hannah Mumby (University of Hong Kong), Antoinette Kotze (National Zoological Gardens of South Africa), Louiza Derouiche (University of Science and Technology Houari Boumedienne, Algeria), Pamela Burger (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna), Mafalda Costa (Cardiff University), Frank Hailer (Cardiff University), Szilvia Kusza (University of Debrecen), Juha Merilä (University of Helsinki), Mats Björklund (Uppsala University), Shomita Mukherjee (SACON, India), and Boudjéma Samraoui (Badji Mokhtar Annaba University, Algeria).

I am currently co-supervisor of two PhD students of the BIODIV doctoral program of CE3C (Teresa Santos and Joel Laia), and a FCT PhD student based at the University of Copenhagen (Nuno Martins). Teresa's thesis is concerned with population and conservation genomics of southern African elephants, expanding on her MSc thesis on the population genetics of elephants in private nature reserves in the Greater Kruger National Park. Joel is studying genomic variation, adaptation, and phenotypic plasticity in the aromatic shrub Thymus caespititius, endemic to the Iberian Peninsula and the Portuguese Atlantic archipelagos of Azores and Madeira. Nuno's thesis aims to investigate the evolutionary history of African golden wolves and Eurasian golden jackals using population genomics.