Diniz Filho Group

Main Interests

Our research is mainly focused on the intersection between ecology and evolution to understand biodiversity patterns - with an emphasis on spatial and temporal patterns at broad scales - and to provide information that can aid in conserving such patterns and the processes that cause them. Under a synthetic framework, we integrate different approaches ranging from population genetics, community and geographical ecology as well as phylogenetics and comparative methods in order to answer some of the most relevant questions in biodiversity science such as i) why are there so many species/lineages in some regions compare to others? ii) What is the relative importance of ecological vs. evolutionary processes in shaping biodiversity patterns at different scales? and iii) Which are the most appropriate methods for dealing with spatially- and phylogenetically-structured data?

Owing to the broad questions tackled and the synthetic nature of our research, we focus on different clades and taxonomic groups. In the same vein, we are constantly concerned with developing new and better methods, testing and applying recently developed ones, and integrating different statistical approaches to fulfill our research goals.