Research summary
No two places on Earth have exactly the same combination of species or environmental conditions. All living organisms present remarkably complex patterns of variation across geographical space, as do their environments. As Canada Research Chair in Spatial Ecology and Biodiversity, Dr. Pedro Peres-Neto is improving our understanding of the underlying causes of spatial patterns in biological diversity and their expected shifts.
He and his research team are shedding light on the connections between living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) features that influence biodiversity patterns at local, regional and global scales. They are also exploring how the spatial structure of an environment underlies community structure and biodiversity maintenance, and developing and refining quantitative frameworks to describe, explain and predict complex spatial patterns of biodiversity. Their goal is to improve our understanding of the processes that affect the geography of biodiversity.