Helena Teixeira

This makes the seabirds an excellent study model to investigate the processes underlying species diversification and speciation in the western Indian Ocean (WIO). My current research project (CONNECTs) aims at inferring genetic connectivity patterns and reconstruct the species demographic history of five seabird species with different geographic distributions: sooty tern and red-footed booby (pan-tropical distribution), wedge-tailed shearwater and great frigatebird (Indo-Pacific distribution), and tropical shearwater (restricted to the Indian Ocean). The results of this project will not only improve our knowledge about seabird connectivity at different spatial scales, but also will allow the identification of appropriate conservation units that must be the focus of future conservation plans in situ.

I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the mechanisms that shaped current biodiversity patterns in tropical regions. My research focuses on the application of molecular and genomic tools to reconstruct species evolutionary histories (i.e., demographic modelling, population connectivity and genetic diversity). Prior to my postdoc at the University of Reunion island (2017 – 2021), I investigated how the past environmental changes shaped the demographic dynamics of mouse lemur species (Microcebus spp.) adapted to different biomes (evergreen humid forest vs. lowland habitats) in Madagascar Island. I am now interested in the genetic processes underlying population connectivity and diversification of seabirds species distributed across the western Indian Ocean.