Angelo Soto-Centeno

Angelo Soto-Centeno’s field biology helps us understand how global changes — including natural and anthropogenic changes in temperature and habitats — affect bat populations, especially in the insular Caribbean. His work helps us anticipate and understand environmental challenges that will influence the survival and conservation of bats and other terrestrial vertebrates. 

Soto-Centeno integrates approaches and insights from many fields, including genomics, natural history, paleontology and species-distribution modeling, to better understand Caribbean bats and the environments in which they live. Mammals on Caribbean islands experienced high rates of extinction since the Last Glacial Maximum, a time when global ice sheets changed Earth and its climate systems. Soto-Centeno’s research suggests that although most bat species survived major climate changes associated with the end of the last glaciation, most extinctions occurred in recent millennia when human activity was high, and climate and vegetation were similar to what we see today. His results, alongside those from other studies, suggest the effects of these multiple factors combined to drive species loss. 

Soto-Centeno’s passion for this work and intentional efforts integrating insights from many scientific fields make him an engaging teacher and effective ambassador for research in the Caribbean. 

Learn more about his work here and at the American Museum of Natural History website.

Photo: Erin Chapman