The scientific vocation of the Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology is to describe the animal biodiversity patterns and infer and demonstrate the mechanisms and processes underlying this from an evolutionary perspective. The scales of analysis are very broad, ranging from the taxonomic description to molecular analysis for describing phylogenetic relationships and biogeographic patterns from aspects related to demographics, behavior and interactions between local species. The groups studied are very different animals, including Rotifera, Turbellaria, nematodes, molluscs, crustaceans, an enormous variety of insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
More info: http://www.beb-mncn.es/
Link: Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology
Evolutionary Ecology
The Department created in 1993 is composed of a dynamic and expert staff who work together with quite large number of graduate students to understand the patterns and processes that structure ecological systems and drive evolutionary change. The pressing challenges facing society today, such as combating habitat loss, climate change, saving endangered species, managing exploited resources, or slowing the spread of infectious disease, have their root in ecological and evolutionary forces.
Link: Evolutionary Ecology
- Biochemistry and microbial ecology
This department is dedicated to the study of the effects of global change and extreme environments on ecosystem structure and functioning, including the ecological implications of microbes in biogeochemical cycling and organic compound degradation. Our ultimate goal is to develop a mechanistic view of ecosystems to model biogeochemical process under global change drivers. The department is comprised of a multidisciplinary group of scientists with expertise on biogeochemistry, aquatic ecology, terrestrial ecology, microbial ecology and geomicrobiology.
Link: Biochemistry and microbial ecology
- Biogeography and Global Change
Biogeography deals with the causes of biological diversity in space and time. The insights learned from the analysis of biogeographical patterns are essential for making scientifically-informed decisions in conservation.
Research in biogeography typically requires a hierarchical understanding of the processes affecting biodiversity at different spatial and temporal scales. Such processes range from rapid, local, individual-level responses to microclimatic changes based on physiological or phenotypic plastic mechanisms, to processes acting at large spatial and temporal scales operating at the level of populations, species, communities or ecosystems. Latter processes include local adaptation, range shifts, speciation and extinction, as well as changes in trophic and non-trophic webs of interactions at continental or global scales.
The Department of Biogeography and Global Change of the National Museum of Natural Sciences (BGC-MNCN) integrates a multidisciplinary research group interested in the description and analysis of patterns and processes of current and past biological diversity, including scientists interested in understanding, predicting and, eventually, mitigating the effects of global change on the biota.
Link: Biogeography and Global Change
The Department of Geology is focused on quality scientific research with respect to the Earth physical systems at different spatial and temporal scales, including the causes and potential consequences of natural Earth processes (e.g. sea level changes, floods, climate change and carbon cycle) and the genesis, availability, distribution and potential depletion of natural resources (e.g. soil & soil pollution, water, minerals and rocks).
The Department of Geology aims at making an important contribution to the scientific understanding of societal issues such as climate change, natural and cultural heritage, environmental pollution, soil and water management, genesis and exploitation of rocks and mineral resources, natural hazards (river floods, coastal flooding), and international development collaboration.
Link: Geology
The main objective of Palaeobiology consists of deciphering the history of life on our planet by means the description of different species found in the fossil record, the determination of their kinship and evolutionary patterns in their living and fossil contexts. This provides valuable information to analyse climatic and ecological changes that occurred in earlier geological periods. Research conducted at the Department of Palaeobiology is focused on the study of fossils, with several research groups devoted to mammals from the Cenozoic, and special attention given to human palaeobiology, as well as amphibians, sauropsids and the origin of plants, together with taphonomic studies.
Understanding the complexity of Earth, which is constantly changing, is only possible through the investigation of the natural processes that operate at different spatial and time scales. The main objective of Researchers of the Department of Palaeobiology is to reach such understanding, through the integration of the information obtained by multiple disciplines and techniques, the causes and processes involved in the fluctuations of the palaeobiodiversity, its ecological structure, and the generation of evolutionary novelties in a changing palaeoenvironmental framework, with evolution of the palaeo-ecosystems and their determinants (geological processes, climatic and biogeographical). It analyzes the processes related to the evolution of organisms from the past and involved in the morphological variability, geographical distribution, taphonomy, relative abundance, ecological structure of the associations, migratory movements and its extinction at different scales.
Link: Palaeobiology
Link of the Research page : Research page
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