I am a biogeographer with broad interests in island biogeography, community ecology and biostatistics. I apply a combination of theoretical and empirical methods to understand the role of historical and ecological processes in shaping community structure, including functional and phylogenetic community-based approaches. I am also interested in quantifying the response of island biodiversity to anthropogenic activities, mainly land-use change and species invasions.

Recent Publications

T.J. Matthews, F.Rigal (2021). Thresholds and the species–area relationship: a set of functions for fitting, evaluating and plotting a range of commonly used piecewise models in R. Frontiers of Biogeography, 13(1), e49404.

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S. Alirezazadeh, P.A.V. Borges, P. Cardoso, R. Gabriel, F.Rigal, L.Borda-de-Agua (2021). Spatial scaling patterns of functional diversity. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9:607177.

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S.Sfenthourakis, K.A.Triantis, K.Proios, F.Rigal (2021). The role of ecological specialization in shaping patterns of insular communities. Journal of Biogeography, 48(2), pp. 243-252 Editor’s Choice.

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P. Cardoso, V.V. Branco, P.A.V. Borges, J.C. Carvalho, F.Rigal, R. Gabriel, S. Mammola, J. Cascalho, L. Correia (2020). Automated Discovery of Relationships, Models, and Principles in Ecology. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8:530135.

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N. Macias-Hernandez, M. Domenech, P. Cardoso, B.C. Emerson, P.A.V. Borges, J. Lozano-Fernandez, O.S. Paulo, A. Vieira, A. Enguídanos, F. Rigal, I.R. Amorim, M.A. Arnedo (2020). Building a Robust, Densely-Sampled Spider Tree of Life for Ecosystem Research. Diversity, 12, 288.

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