João Gonçalo Soutinho

Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources | CIBIO · ECOCHANGE - Predicting and Managing Ecological Change

The European Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus) is a saproxylic protected species facing a generalized decline. It is one of the biggest beetles in Europe and is very easy to identify, presenting a high iconographic value. It is thus used as a flagship species for raising awareness towards the need of protecting invertebrates, specifically deadwood depen...

Lucanus cervus, the European stag beetle, is one of the largest beetle species in Europe. It is protected by several European laws demanding monitoring throughout the countries where it occurs. In Portugal, its southwestern distribution limit, where a specific conservation plan is still lacking, its conservation status was considered ‘Unknown’ in t...

Protected areas are not only crucial for biodiversity and natural processes but also for recreation. Although a benign neglect strategy of dealing with natural disturbances in protected areas is beneficial for nature, public debate on avoiding increased pest population growth has intensified. We evaluated the effect of mechanical pest control measu...

The use of flagship species in conservation, such as the European Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus), can positively affect the conservation of other taxonomic or functionally related species. This is especially true for taxonomic groups where the knowledge regarding their distribution and ecology is generally limited, as is the case of insects. This wor...

Quercus faginea (Portuguese oak) is a marcescent White Oak that is distributed across the western Mediterranean Basin in transitional sub-Mediterranean areas that include most of the western Portuguese coast. Due to land-use changes, its presence has been drastically reduced but there are still old-growth oaks, remnants of the native forest, that s...

To address the decline in biodiversity, international cooperation in monitoring of threatened species is needed. Citizen science can play a crucial role in achieving this challenging goal, but most citizen science projects have been established at national or regional scales. Here we report on the establishment and initial findings of the European...

The extinction of species is a non‐random process, and understanding why some species are more likely to go extinct than others is critical for conservation efforts. Functional trait‐based approaches offer a promising tool to achieve this goal. In forests, deadwood‐dependent (saproxylic) beetles comprise a major part of threatened species, but anal...

Mature Portuguese oaks are relics from primary Quercus faginea woodlands (cercais), that historically occupied a considerable area of Midwestern Portuguese Limestone, representing the transition between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean climates. These trees play a major ecological role in the conservation of biodiversity, constituting essential...

Humans are changing Earth’s biodiversity at unprecedent rates, mainly by destroying or degrading ecosystems. Large old trees can be both a symbol of cultures, as well as an ecosystem per se. They play essential ecological roles in e.g. hydrologic and micro/meso-climatic regimes, carbon storage and nutrient cycling while also providing habitat for a...

Although laboratory trials suggest that stick insects (Phasmatodea) are a highly palatable prey group for spiders, field observations confirming this hypothesis are very rare. We report on a predatory event involving a huntsman spider of the genus Damastes (Araneae: Sparassidae) on a stick insect of the genus Antongilia (Bacillidae: Antongiliinae)...

Saproxylic species, those which depend on deadwood to survive, can be found in a multitude of habitats in several ecosystems. Land use change and intensification can increase human-nature conflicts (e.g. tree management-biodiversity conservation). As a result, many trees are removed and saproxylic organisms eventually become threatened. In Portugal...

Os escaravelhos saproxílicos são vitais em qualquer ecossistema florestal. O facto de ocuparem nichos ecológicos tão específicos permite que sejam usados como bio-indicadores da qualidade florestal. Fitossanidade, gestão florestal e reciclagem de nutrientes são apenas três dos muitos parâmetros que podem ser analisados a partir do estudo das popula...

A Serra do Buçaco, localizada na zona centro de Portugal, encontra-se bastante marcada pela acção humana. As actividades associadas à silvicultura intensiva de pinheiro-bravo e eucalipto e mais recentemente os impactos notórios de espécies invasoras como as acácias constituem importantes factores de perturbação, levando à perda e fragmentação de ha...