Penelope Fialas Research Assistant
I obtained my BSc in Natural Sciences in 2014 at the University of Bologna, where I was involved in the project “LIFE+08NAT\IT\000369 GYPSUM”, investigating the success of alternative bat roosts (bat boxes) in a national park in Italy. I then carried out an internship at the NGO SPEA in Lisbon through the Leonardo da Vinci’s scholarship, working in the project “LIFE13 NAT/PT/000458”, in the archipelago of Berlengas, Portugal.
In 2018, I received my bi-national master’s degree in International Nature Conservation from the University of Goettingen (Germany) and Lincoln University (New Zealand) during which I had the opportunity to conduct my own research regarding bat responses to organic-transitional farming and landscape complexity in citrus orchards in Cyprus.
I have since worked on a range of research projects at the Bat ecology and Bioacoustics Lab and at the Bioacoustics and Behavioural ecology group of the University of Bristol. I am currently working as a research assistant at UWE, studying the effects of landscape fragmentation on bats in the UK and in Malawi. My broad experiences involve the use of techniques including GIS analysis, data & statistical analysis, morphometrics, bioacoustics, and molecular techniques.
I am commencing my PhD in 2019 at the University of Bristol where I will be studying the ecosystem services bats provide in agriculture landscapes using cutting-edge molecular techniques.
Publications
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Froidevaux, J.,Fialas, P. & Jones, G., 2018. Catching insects while recording bats: impacts of light trapping on acoustic sampling. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation.
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Fialas P., Froidevaux J.,Jones G., Batry P., 2019 Detrimental effects of organic-transitional agriculture on bats in Mediterranean orchards. (in prep.)
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Menchaca A., Fialas P., Teeling E., Medellin R.,Jones G., 2019 Differential gene expressions and morphological adaptations in migrations in tequila bats (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae). (in prep.)
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Carr, A., Weatherall, A., Fialas, P., Clare E. & Jones, G., 2019 Conservation management of bat foraging habitat can benefit all life stages of their insect prey. (in press)
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Fialas, P., N. Oliveira, A. Meirinho & J. Andrade, 2015. Assessment of predation of black rat Rattus rattus towards Cory’s shearwater Calonectris borealis on Berlenga Island. Technical Report of the Action A7, Project LIFE Berlengas. Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves, Lisboa.
