PhD Student

Ricardo Costa

Ricardo Pires da Costa is conducting a Ph.D. in Macroecology by the University of Azores starting in 2021 within the IBBC of cE3c. He is conducting the project Evaluation of rarity and population trends of endemic Azorean arthropods in the light of their functional traits, under the supervision of Paulo Borges (cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes/Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal), François Rigal (CNRS - Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour - E2S UPPA, Institut Des Sciences Analytiques et de Physico Chimie pour L'environnement et les Materiaux UMR5254, 64000, Pau, France) and Pedro Cardoso (LIBRe – Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, P.O.Box 17 (Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13), 00014 Helsinki, Finland). Evaluation of rarity and population trends of endemic Azorean arthropods in the light of their functional traits Ph.D. project aims are:

1. Compile a large standardized database including abundance, distribution and traits for selected groups of Azorean endemic arthropods.
2. Quantify extinction risk of endemic arthropod species using some spatial but mostly temporal abundance data.
3. Test the positive or negative correlations between functional traits and extinction risk.
4. Reassess the Red-list status of the studied Azorean species.