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School of Geography and the Environment

University of Oxford
School of Geography and the Environment

 School of Geography and the Environment

Dr Miguel Araújo

  • Senior Research Associate
  • Member of the Biodiversity research cluster

Academic Profile

Dr Miguel B. Araújo is a senior research associate to the Biodiversity research cluster. He is also a subject editor of Ecography and a member of the editorial advisory board to the Journal of Biogeography.

Current Research

Current research includes:

  1. Measurement of impacts of climate change on biodiversity
  2. Systematic conservation planning
  3. Macroecology
Current projects

EC FP6 Integrated Project ALARM (Assessing Large Scale Risks for Biodiversity with Tested Methods)

Current Post-doctoral fellows
  • Dr Joaquin Hortal (2005-2008). FCT Research Fellow working on environmental- and assemblage-based surrogates for biodiversity.
  • David Nogués-Bravo (2005-2006). Working for the ALARM project on climate-change impacts on biodiversity.

Selected Publications

Published, in press or in review in internationally peers reviewed journals (listed by the SCI)
  • Paterson, J.S., Araújo, M.B., Berry, P.M., Piper, J.M. and Rounsevell, M.D.A. (2008) Mitigation, adaptation and the threat to biodiversity. Conservation Biology, 22(5): 1352-1355.
  • Araújo, M.B., Nogués-Bravo, D., Reginster, I., Rounsevell, M. and Whittaker, R.J. (2008) Exposure of European biodiversity to changes in human-induced pressures. Environmental Science and Policy, 11: 38-45.
  • Araújo, M.B. and Luoto, M. (2007) The importance of biotic interactions for modelling species' responses to climate change. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 16: 743–753.
  • Nogués-Bravo, D. & Araújo, M.B. (2006) Species richness, area and climate correlates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 15: 452–460.
  • O'Dea, N., Araújo, M.B. and Whittaker, R.J. (2006) How well do Important Bird Areas represent species and minimise conservation conflict in the tropical Andes? Diversity and Distributions, 12: 205-214.
  • Segurado, P., Araújo, M.B. and Kunin, W. (In review, 2006) Consequences of spatial autocorrelation on niche-based models. Journal of Applied Ecology, 43: 433–444.
  • Rounsevell, M., Reginster, I., Araújo, M.B., Carter, T.R., Dendoncker, N., Ewert, F., House, J.I., Kankaapaa, S., Leemans, R., Metzger, M., Schmit, C., Smith, P., Tuck, G. (2006) A coherent set of future land-use change scenarios for Europe. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.
  • Whittaker, R.J, Nogués-Bravo, D., & Araújo, M.B. (In review, 2006) Geographic gradients of species richness: a test of the water-energy conjecture of Hawkins et al. (2003a) Using European data for five taxa.
  • Araújo, M.B., Thuiller, W., & Pearson, R.G. (2006) Climate warming and the decline of amphibians and reptiles in Europe. Journal of Biogeography.
  • Pearson, R.G., Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B., Martinez, E., Brotons, L., McClean, C., Miles, L., Segurado, P., Dawson, T. & Lees, D. (2006) Model-based uncertainty in species' range prediction. Journal of Biogeography.
  • Thuiller, W., Lavorel, S., Sykes, M.T. & Araújo, M.B. (2006) European tree diversity, ecosystem function and climate change. Diversity and Distributions.
  • Araújo, M.B. & Pearson, R.G. 2005. Equilibrium of species' distributions with climate. Ecography, 28: 693-695.
  • Araújo, M.B., Pearson, R.G., Thuiller, W., and Erhard, M. (2005) Validation of species-climate impact models under climate change. Global Change Biology, 11: 1504-1513.
  • Araújo, M.B., Thuiller, W., Williams, P.H. & Reginster, I. (2005) Downscaling European species atlas distributions to a finer resolution: implications for conservation planning. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 14: 17-30.
  • Araújo, M.B., Whittaker, R.J., Ladle, R.J. and Erhard, M. (2005) Reducing uncertainty in extinction risk from climate change. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 14: 529-538.
  • Schröter, D., Cramer, W., Leemans, R., Prentice, I.C., Araújo, M.B., Arnell, N.W., Bondeau, B., Bugmann, H., Carter, T., de la Vega-Leinert, A.C., Erhard, M., Ewert, F., Glendining, M., House, J., Kankaanpää, S., Klein, R.J.T., Metzger, M.J., Meyer, J., Mitchell, T., Lavorel, S., Lindner, M., Reginster, I., Rounsevell, M., Sabaté, S., Sánchez, A., Sitch, S., Smith, B., Smith, J., Smith, P., Sykes, M.T., Thonicke, K., Thuiller, W., Tuck, G., Zaehle, S., Zierl, B. (2006) Ecosystem service supply and human vulnerability to global change in Europe. Science 310: 10.1126/science.1115233
  • Thuiller, W., Lavorel, S. & Araújo, M.B. (2005) Niche properties as predictors of species sensitivity to climate change. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 14: 347-357.
  • Thuiller, W., Lavorel, S., Araújo, M.B., Sykes, M. & Prentice, I.C. (2005) Climate change threats to plant diversity in Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 102: 8245-8250.
  • Whittaker, R.J., Araújo, M.B., Jepson, P., Ladle, R., Watson, J., and Willis, K. (2005) Conservation biogeography: assessment and prospect. Diversity and Distributions, 11: 3-23.
  • Williams, P.H., Hannah, L., Andelman, S., Midgley, G., Araújo, M.B., Hughes, G., Manne, L.L., Martinez-Meyer, E. and Pearson, R. (2005) Planning for climate change: Identifying minimum dispersal corridors for the Cape Proteaceae. Conservation Biology. 19: 1060-1073.
  • Araújo, M.B., Cabeza, M., Thuiller, W., Hannah, L., Williams, P.H. (2004) Would climate change drive species out of reserves? An assessment of existing reserve-selection methods. Global Change Biology, 10: 1618-1626.
  • Araújo, M.B. (2004) Matching species with reserves: uncertainties from using data at different resolutions. Biological Conservation, 118: 533-538.
  • Araújo, M.B., Densham, P.J. & Williams, P.H. (2004) Representing species in reserves from patterns of assemblage diversity. Journal of Biogeography, 31: 1037-1050.
  • Brotons, L., Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B. & Hirzel, A.H. (2004) Presence-absence versus presence-only habitat suitability models: the role of species ecology and prevalence. Ecography, 27: 437-448.
  • Cabeza, M., Araújo, M.B., Wilson, R.J., Thomas, C.D., Cowley, M.J.R. & Moilanen, A. (2004) Combining probabilities of occurrence with spatial reserve design. Journal of Applied Ecology, 41: 252-262.
  • Ladle, R.J., Jepson, P., Araújo, M.B., & Whittaker, R.J. (2004) Dangers of crying wolf over risk of extinctions. Nature, 428: 799.
  • Segurado, P. & Araújo, M.B. (2004) An evaluation of methods for modelling species distributions. Journal of Biogeography, 31: 1555-1569.
  • Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B. & Lavorel, S. (2004) Do we need land-cover data to predict species distributions in Europe? Journal of Biogeography 31: 353-361.
  • Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B., Pearson, R.G., Whittaker, R.J., Brotons, L. & Lavorel, S. (2004) Uncertainty in predictions of extinction risk. Nature, 430: doi10.1038/nature02716.
  • Thuiller, W., Brotons, L., Araújo, M.B. & Lavorel, S. (2004) Effects of restricting environmental range of data to project current and future species distributions. Ecography, 27: 165-172.
  • Araújo, M.B., Densham, P.J. & Humphries, C.J. (2003) Predicting species diversity with ED: the quest for evidence. Ecography, 26: 380-384.
  • Araújo, M.B. (2003) The coincidence of people and biodiversity in Europe. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 12: 5-12.
  • Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B. & Lavorel, S. (2003) Generalized models versus classification tree analysis: predicting spatial distributions of plant species at different scales. Journal of Vegetation Science, 14: 669-680.
  • Araújo, M.B. (2002) Biodiversity hotspots and zones of ecological transition. Conservation Biology, 16: 1662-1663.
  • Araújo, M.B., Williams, P.H. & Fuller, R. (2002a) Dynamics of extinction and the selection of nature reserves. Proceedings of the Royal Society London - Biological Series, B269: 1971-80.
  • Araújo, M.B., Williams, P.H. & Turner, A. (2002b) A sequential approach to minimize threats within selected conservation areas. Biodiversity and Conservation, 11: 1011-1024.
  • Williams, P.H. & Araújo, M.B. (2002) Apples, oranges and probabilities: integrating multiple factors into biodiversity conservation with consistency. Environmental Modeling and Assessment, 7: 139-151.
  • Araújo, M.B. & Williams, P.H. (2001) The bias of complementary hotspots toward marginal populations. Conservation Biology, 15: 1710-1720.
  • Araújo, M.B., Densham, P.J., Lampinen, R., Hagemeijer, W.J.M., Mitchell-Jones, A.J., Gasc, J.P. & Humphries, C.J. (2001) Would environmental diversity be a good surrogate for species diversity? Ecography 24: 103-110.
  • Araújo, M.B. & Williams, P.H. (2000) Selecting areas for species persistence using occurrence data. Biological Conservation, 96: 331-45.
  • Borralho, R., Stoate, C. & Araújo, M.B. (2000) Factors affecting the distribution of Red-legged Partridges Alectoris rufa in an agricultural landscape of southern Portugal. Bird Study, 47: 304-10.
  • Stoate, C., Borralho, R. & Araújo, M.B. (2000) Factors affecting Corn bunting Miliaria calandra abundance in a Portuguese agricultural landscape. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 77: 219-26.
  • Williams, P.H. & Araújo, M.B. (2000) Using probability of persistence to identify important areas for biodiversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society London - Biological Series, B267: 1959-66.
  • Araújo, M.B. (1999) Distribution patterns of biodiversity and the design of a representative reserve network in Portugal. Diversity and Distributions, 5: 151-63.
Other papers in refereed journals (not listed by the SCI):
  • Lobo, J.M. & Araújo, M.B. (2003) La aplicación de datos faunísticos para el diseño de redes de reservas: el caso de los anfibios y reptiles de la Península Ibérica. Graellsia, 59: 399-408.
  • Stoate, C., Araújo, M.B. & Borralho, R. (2003) Conservation of European farmland birds: abundance and species diversity. Ornis Hungarica, 12-13: 33-40.
  • Sérgio, C., Araújo, M.B. & Drapper, D. (2000) Portuguese bryophyte diversity and priority areas for conservation. Lindbergia, 25: 116-123.
  • Williams, P.H. & Araújo, M.B. (2000) Integrating species and ecosystem monitoring for identifying conservation priorities. European Conservation, 4: 17-18.
  • Williams, P.H., Humphries, C.J., Araújo, M.B., Lampinen, R., Hagemeijer, W., Gasc, J-P. & Mitchell-Jones. A. (2000) Endemism and important areas for conserving European biodiversity: a preliminary exploration of Atlas data for plants and terrestrial vertebrates. Belgian Journal of Entomology, 2: 21-46.
  • Araújo, M.B. & Sérgio, C. (1999) Gap Analysis: vantagens e desvantagens para uma avaliação da Rede Natura 2000 em Portugal. Boletim da Sociedade Portuguesa de Entomologia, 6: 13-20.
  • Humphries, C.J., Araújo, M.B., Williams, P.H., Lampinen, R., Lathi, T., Uotila, P. (1999) Plant diversity in Europe: Atlas Florae Europaeae and WORLDMAP. Acta Botanica Fennica, 162: 11-21.
  • Araújo, M.B. (1998) Avaliação da biodiversidade em conservação. Silva Lusitana, 6: 19-40.
  • Araújo, M.B. (1995) Basis for establishing a management plan for conservation and sustainable development in the Pantanal (Brazil). The European Geographer, 9: 15-21.