Dr. Belinda Gallardo
Email: bg306@cam.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1223 336617
Research Associate
Personal web-pages: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Belinda_Gallardo/
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/belinda-gallardo/54/a0b/90
Research Interests
I am an aquatic ecologist with broad interests in both basic and applied research. I started modelling aquatic communities to inform restoration projects during my PhD. Currently I am modelling the potential distribution of invasive species from UK to Europe and global scales. I am also interested in the impact of invasive species on ecosystem services and their potential interaction with climate change.
Current research
In 2010 I joined the Aquatic Ecology Group thanks to a Marie Curie fellowship awarded by the European Commission. Results derived from the EU-funded project FRESIS (‘Freshwater Invasive Species: prevention, control and eradication’) have provided important insights into the global distribution of aquatic pests and their relationship with global processes such as climate change and socio-economic development. Such a strong scientific base has great utility in helping environmental managers focus efforts on the most effective prevention, management and monitoring programmes.
In the last years I have specialised in the application of species distribution models (SDM) that measure a region’s environmental suitability for an invasive species by projecting a model of the known species distribution into a region of interest. SDM have the potential to locate areas at continental or regional scale which are most similar to the current range of the invasive species, and that are most susceptible to successful colonization in the event of an introduction. While most SDM in the literature rely on climatic factors as potential predictors of species distribution, I am interested in the inclusion of socio-economic drivers such as habtiat degradation, population density, land-use or distance to commercial ports. Despite their potential to inform and eventually improve predictions, to date socio-economic factors like these have not been specifically integrated into SDM.
I am currently working in the work package ‘Targeting and Prioritization for invasive non-native species in the RINSE Project Area’ which is framed in the European-funded project RINSE (‘Reducing the Impact of Non-native Species in Europe’). This work package aims i) to compile a list of invasive species (aquatic and terrestrial) present in areas around the British Channel, ii) to select a number of current and potential invaders of interest because of the gravity of their impacts, iii) to develop SDM for selected species to predict areas at high risk of being invaded should they continue spreading and iv) to provide a more complete risk assessment for the worst potential invaders.
I am currently supervising a PhD and several undergraduate projects and I am open to taking on new students, so if you are interested in invasive species, SDM or other modelling techniques do not hesitate to contact me at bg306@cam.ac.uk or galla82@hotmail.com.
Selected publications
Under review in 2012
- Gallardo, B. & D. C. Aldridge. Priority setting for invasive species management: integrated risk assessment of multiple Ponto Caspian invasive species into Great Britain. Ecological Application.
- Gallardo, B., Ermgassen, P. & Aldridge D. Multiple niche expansions in the aquatic invader Dreissena polymorpha and the ability of native and invaded ranges to predict its worldwide distribution. Journal of Biogeography.
- Gallardo, B. & D.C. Aldridge. Approaching the interaction of climate change and invasive species using species distribution models. Oecologia.
- Gallardo, B., C. McLaughlan & D.C. Aldridge. Priority setting for the management of Europe’s 10 worst invasive species using socio-economic and ecosystem services indicators. Acta Oecologica.
- Gallardo, B., J. Dodd & D.C. Aldridge. Socio-economic factors amplify the potential distribution of aquatic invasive species. Journal of Applied Ecology.
- Gallardo, B., S. Doledec, A. Paillex, S. Merigoux, E. Castella, D. Arscott, F. Sheldon, F. Zilli & F.A. Comín. Response of benthic macroinvertebrates to a gradient of hydrological connectivity in tropical, temperate, Mediterranean and arid rivers. Ecography.
- Chowdhury, G., B. Gallardo, S.M. Lita, R. Akter, I. Jahan & D.C. Aldridge. Development and validation of a Biotic Index to assess the ecological quality of lakes and reservoirs in Bangladesh. Ecological Applications.
- Quinn, A., B. Gallardo & D.C. Aldridge. Global distribution and overlap of zebra (Dreissena polymorpha) and quagga (Dreissena r. bugensis) mussels. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.
Published in the last two years (2011 and 2012)
- Gallardo, B., M. P. Errea & D. C. Aldridge. Application of Bioclimatic models coupled with Network Analysis for risk assessment of the killer shrimp, Dikerogammarus villosus, in Great Britain. Biological Invasions 14: 1265–1278.
- Gallardo, B., C. Español & F. A. Comín. Aquatic metabolism short-term response to the flood pulse in a Mediterranean floodplain. Hydrobiologia 693: 251-264.
- Gallardo, B., A. Cabezas, E. González & F. A. Comín. Effectiveness of a newly created oxbow lake to mitigate habitat loss and increase biodiversity in a regulated floodplain. Restoration Ecology 20(3): 387-394.
- Gallardo, B. & C. Español. El mejillón cebra (Dreissena polymorpha, Pallas 1971) en La Rioja: situación actual y evolución potencial. Zubia 23: 203-222
- Gallardo, B., S. Gascón, X. Quintana & F.A. Comín. How to choose a biodiversity indicator - Redundancy and complementarity of biodiversity metrics in a freshwater ecosystem. Ecological Indicators 11: 1177-1184.
- Cabezas, A., M. Gonzalez-Sanchis, B. Gallardo & F.A. Comin. Using continuous surface water level and temperature data to characterize hydrological connectivity in riparian wetlands. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 183: 485-500.
