My interests are biogeography, spatial ecology and biotic interactions (e.g. food webs). My research has focused on understanding the effects of environmental changes on species ranges and interactions. In recent years I've addressed the effects of human and natural drivers on the structure of these networks on a global scale. I can't imagine doing anything, but science! Knowing why species are where they are, and what shapes their interaction networks is my passion.
I've recently expanded my research, including bioinformatics, taking advantage of my skills as an advanced R user/developer.
1. Outreach
I contribute frequently to the blog Geekcologist – Ecology & Modelling.
2. Publications
2.1. Book chapters
Mestre, F.; Quiles, P.; Bastazini, 2, V.A.G. & Ascensão, F. (in press) “Road effects on species interactions”, in D’Amico, M; Barrientos, R.; Ascensão, F. (Eds.) “Road Ecology: Synthesis and Perspectives”. Springer.
Barbosa, S, Mestre, F & Pita, R (2023). “Microtus cabrerae, Rato-de-Cabrera”. In Mathias, ML, (coord.), Fonseca, C, Rodrigues, L, Grilo, C, Lopes-Fernandes, M, Palmeirim, JM, Santos-Reis, M, Alves, PC, Cabral, JA, Ferreira, M, Mira, A, Eira, C, Negrões, N, Paupério, J, Pita, R, Rainho, A, Rosalino, LM, Tapisso, JT & Vingada, J (eds.): Livro Vermelho dos Mamíferos de Portugal Continental. FCiências.ID, ICNF, Lisboa.
Barbosa, E.C.C.; Vasconcelos, R.N.; Mestre, F.; Boscolo, R. & Miranda, J.C.V. (2021) “Generation, analysis and application of neutral landscapes in ecology”, in Firmino, A.; Boscolo, D.; Ciochetti, G.; Guiomar, N.; Ribeiro, S.M.C. (Eds.) “Ecologia da Paisagem no Contexto Luso-Brasileiro” (Landscape Ecology: a Luso-brazilian view, originally in Portuguese). 1ª Edição. Editora Appris, ISBN: 978-65-250-0254-5
2.2. Papers
Mestre, F., Bastazini, V.B.; Ascensão, F. (2024). "Wildlife-vehicle collisions simplify regional food webs". Biorxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.03.07.583843.
Galiana, N.; Arnoldi, J-F.; Mestre, F.; Rozenfeld, A.; Araújo, M.B. (2023) “From species co-occurrences to interactions: the emergence of power-law degree distributions”. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02254-y.
Mestre, F.; Silva, B. (2023). “lconnect R Package: A Versatile Tool for Evaluating Landscape Connectivity and Prioritizing Habitat Patches in Conservation Research”. Ecological Modelling, 110489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110489.
Mestre, F.; Barbosa, S.; Garrido-García, J.A.; Pita, R.; Mira, A.; Alves, P.C.; Paupério, J.; Searle, J.B.; Beja, P (2022) “Inferring past refugia and range dynamics through the integration of fossil, niche modelling and genomic data”. Journal of Biogeography. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14492.
Mestre, F.; Rozenfeld, A.; Araújo, M.B. (2022) “Human disturbances affect the topology of food webs”. Ecology Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14107.
Silva, B.; Mestre, F.; Barreiro, S.; Alves, P.J.; Herrera, J.M. (2022) “SoundClass: an automatic sound classification tool for biodiversity monitoring using machine learning”. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13964.
Mestre, F.; Gravel, D.; García-Callejas, D.; Pinto-Cruz, C; Matias, M. & Araújo, M.B. (2022) “Disentangling food-web environment relationships: a review with guidelines”. Basic and Applied Ecology, 61:102-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2022.03.011.
Grilo et al. (…) Mestre, F. (…) (2022). “Mammals in Portugal: a data set of terrestrial and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal”. Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3654.
Araújo, M.B.; Mestre, F. & Naimi, B. (2020) “Ecological and epidemiological models are both useful for SARS-CoV-2” Nature Ecology & Evolution, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-1246-y.
Mestre, F.; Pita, R.; Mira, A. & Beja, P. (2020) “Species traits, patch turnover and successional dynamics: When does intermediate disturbance favour metapopulation occupancy?”. BMC Ecology, 20: 2. DOI: 10.1186/s12898-019-0273-5.
Ascensão, F; Mestre, F. & Barbosa, A.M. (2019). “Prioritizing road defragmentation using graph-based tools”. Landscape and Urban Planning, 192, 103653. DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103653.
Mestre, F.; Lopes, H.; Pinto, T.; Sousa, L.G.; Mira, A.; & Santos, S. (2019). “Bad moon rising? The Influence of the lunar cycle on amphibian roadkills”. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 65:58. DOI: 10.1007/s10344-019-1285-3.
Mestre, F.; Ascensão, F; & Barbosa, A.M. (2019). “gDefrag: A graph-based tool to help defragmenting landscapes divided by linear infrastructures”. Ecological Modelling, 392: 1-5. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2018.10.012.
Mestre, F. (2018). “Thesis synopsis: Synergistic effects of climate change and habitat fragmentation on species range shifts and metapopulation persistence”. Frontiers of Biogeography, 9(4): e35859. DOI: 10.21425/F59435859.
Barbosa, S.; Mestre, F.; White, T.; Paupério, J.; Alves, P.; Searle, J. (2018). “Integrative approaches to guide conservation decisions: using genomics to define conservation units and functional corridors”. Molecular Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/mec.14806.
Mestre, F.; Risk, B.; Mira, A. & Beja, P.; Pita, R. (2017). “A metapopulation approach to predict species range shifts under different climate change and landscape connectivity scenarios”. Ecological Modelling. 359: 406-414. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2017.06.013.
Mestre, F.; Cánovas, F.; Pita, R.; Mira, A. & Beja, P. (2016). “An R Package for simulating metapopulation persistence and range expansion under environmental change”. Environmental Modelling & Software, 81:40-44. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.03.007.
Cánovas, F.; Magliozzi, C.; Palazón-Ferrando, J.A.; Mestre, F. & Gonzalez-Wanguemert, M. (2015): “ENiRG: R-GRASS interface to efficiently characterize the ecological niche of species and predict habitat suitability”. Ecography, 39(6): 593-598. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.01426.
Mestre, F.; Pita, R.; Paupério, J.; Martins, F.M.S.; Alves, P.C.; Mira, A. & Beja, P. (2015).“Combining distribution modelling and non-invasive genetics to improve range shift forecasting”. Ecological Modelling, 297: 171-179. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.11.018.
Mestre, F.; Bragança, M.P.; Nunes, A. & dos Santos, M.E. (2014). “Satellite tracking of sea turtles released after prolonged captivity periods”. Marine Biology Research, 10(10): 996-1006. DOI: 10.1080/17451000.2013.872801.
Godinho, S.; Mestre, F.; Ferreira, J.P.; Machado, R. & Santos, P. (2013). “Effectiveness of habitat management in the recovery of low-density populations of wild rabbit”. European Journal of Wildlife Research. Doi: 10.1007/s10344-013-0738-3.
Mestre, F.; Ferreira, J.P. & Mira, A. (2007). “Modelling the distribution of the European polecat, Mustela putorius, in a Mediterranean agricultural landscape”, Revue d’Ecólogie – Terre et Vie, 62: 35-47.
2.3. Softwares
MetaLandSim - Landscape and Range Expansion Simulation: in CRAN (here), with a development version in GitHub (here).
lconnect - Simple tools to compute landscape connectivity metrics: in CRAN (here), with a development version in GitHub (here).
ENiRG - Ecological Niche in R and GRASS: in CRAN (here).
gDefrag - Graph-Based Landscape De-Fragmentation: in CRAN (here), with a development version in GitHub (here).