Raúl Bonal

I have got a PhD degree in Biological Sciences (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid 2005). I have developed my research career at different Institutions like the National Natural Sciences Museum of Madrid (CSIC), the Faculty  of Environmental Sciences (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha) and internationally recognized centres like the Natural History Museum (London). Currently I have got a post-doc contract (CSIC-JaeDoc) and work at the Institute for Research on Game Resources, IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCM). Since 2005 I have collaborated with CREAF staff in different projects and I am an associated researcher of this Centre.

 

My main research line is based on the implications of the interactions between plants and animals for ecosystem functioning and species diversification. I have developed most of my work at tropical and temperate oak forests, studying principally seed predation and defoliation by forest insects. The interest for the evolutionary aspects of this subject has led me to build DNA-based phylogenies to test in which extent these interactions promote the speciation of plant predators. In addition, molecular techniques allow assessing whether differentiation may arise between different populations of the same insect species depending on their degree of spatial isolation. Given the current dramatic territory fragmentation as a consequence of Global Change, this sort of research has got a conservation interest as well.  By last, the fact that some oak insect predators are considered pests, has led me to propose the practical application of the results to permit their biological control.