Júlio Manuel Neto
From 1990 to 1995, I studied biology at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, where I also carried out a Master Degree on Sciences of Coastal Zones (1999) and taught practical classes of ecology to undergraduates. In 2004, I was awarded a DPhil at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, University of Oxford, as a result of my study on “Breeding ecology, moult and migration of Savi’s Warblers (Locustella luscinioides) in Portugal”.
I started a post-doc in 2005, based at CIBIO/UP (Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, University of Porto), Portugal, and also at the Department of Animal Ecology, Lund University, Sweden. Currently, I’m undertaking a second post-doc, which, like the first, is being carried out in Portugal and Sweden.
I have a broad interest in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology, and work mostly on natural populations of marshland passerines. My research involves a lot of fieldwork (bird ringing/banding, nest finding, collection of blood and feather samples), lab work (genetics, stable isotope analysis), and statistics. Specific research lines include:
(1) the life-history trade-offs between breeding, moult and migration;
(2) the use and analysis of ringing data;
(3) extra-pair paternity, sexual selection and sex allocation (in my study population of Savi’s Warblers Locustella luscinioides);
(4) the genetic population structure and migratory connectivity of marshland passerines;
(5) local adaptation and the evolution of reproductive barriers (in Reed Buntings Emberiza schoeniclus).