Alexandre Antonelli

I work in biogeography, a topic within biology that investigates how climate, the environment and the landscape influence biodiversity. Why are there so many more species in Amazonia than in a Swedish spruce forest? Where do all the plants and animals in these regions come from, when did they diverge from their closest relatives, and how will they be affected by on-going climatic and environmental changes? These are some of the questions that my research group and I try to answer by analysing present-day and past data from millions of years ago. By assessing how different species and ecosystems were affected by previous periods of global warming and other drastic events - such as the meteorite that killed all dinosaurs except for birds - we try to understand which features characterise winners and losers. Robust estimates are needed to influence the political opinion and thereby focus global resources on the most important threats against biodiversity.