Paola Arroyo-Vargas

Paola is a Natural Resources Engineer from southern Chile, with a Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management from the Universidad de La Frontera, Chile, and arrived in Portland and joined the lab in September of 2019. Her research interests are broadly on the effect of fire in plant communities in Araucaria-Nothofagus forests in Patagonia. Paola’s masters’ work looked at the response of plant communities following wildfires in Araucaria-Nothofagus forests. For her doctoral work, she is looking at the effects of high severity (single and twice) wildfires on functional plant diversity, browsing-flammability dynamics, and tree regeneration in these Araucaria-Nothofagus forests (China Muerta and Malleco National Reserves and the Tolhuaca National Park). In other aspects of her life, when Paola is not in class or in the field, she spends her time hiking some new trails or exploring new recipes for cooking for her people.