Dr Samuel Pironon
Research Fellow

Department
Team
Spatial Analysis & Data Science
Specialism
Biogeography; Macroecology; Conservation; Global Change; Useful Plants; Food
My research examines the structure and dynamics of species’ geographical distributions, including how these respond to past, current and future environmental changes. A major aim of this work is to develop and provide the necessary tools and information to help preserving biodiversity. Since joining the FICESSA project at Kew, I have focused on (i) assessing the potential effects of future anthropogenic climate change on the distribution of food and industrial crops in Sub-Saharan Africa, and (ii) proposing adaptive strategies, especially through the use of the tremendous diversity of crop wild relatives found across the Earth.
- BA Biology, Univ. Lorraine, Nancy, France, 2007
- MSc Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, Univ. Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, 2009
- MSc Biodiversity, Ecotoxicology, Ecosystems, Univ. Lorraine, Metz, France, 2010
- PhD: 'An integrative assessment of a major biogeographical paradigm: the “centre-periphery” hypothesis', Univ. Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain, 2016
Pironon, S., Villellas, J., Thuiller, W., Eckhart, V., Geber, M.A., Moeller, D.A. & Garcia, M.B. (2018).
The “Hutchinsonian niche” as an assemblage of demographic niches: implications for species geographic ranges.
Ecography 41: 1103–1113.
Pironon, S., Papuga, G., Villellas, J., Angert, A.L., Garcia, M.B. & Thompson, J.D. (2017).
Geographic variation in genetic and demographic performance: new insights from an old biogeographical paradigm.
Biological Reviews 92: 1877–1909.
Pironon, S., Villellas, J., Morris, W.F., Doak, D.F. & Garcia, M.B. (2015).
Do geographic, climatic or historical ranges differentiate the performance of central versus peripheral populations?
Global Ecology and Biogeography 24: 611–620.
Thuiller, W., Pironon, S., Psomas, A., Barbet-Massin, M., Jiguet, F., Lavergne, S., Pearman, P.B., Renaud, J., Zupan, L. & Zimmermann N.E. (2014).
The European functional tree of bird life in the face of global change.
Nature communications 5: 3118.