Background

General Research Interests

I’m an ecologist with a broad interest in diverse types of plant interactions (plant-plant, plant-animal, plant-soil, and plant-climate) at different scales, from leaf to ecosystem. In special, I’m interested in the response of woody species to recent environmental changes and its consequences for population and community dynamics.

Current Research Project

“Mechanisms implied on the adaptation of Mediterranean forests to climate change (MEADCLIM)”

he changes in climate registered during the last decades have the potential to modify the phenology, growth and biotic interactions for many plant species at global scale. However, the longer exposure of populations closer to the equatorial distribution limit to more extreme conditions might have induced the appearance of some adaptations related to increased environmental tolerance, as e.g. resistance to water stress, increasing the survival probabilities under a global-change scenario. In this project, we will use cork oak (Quercus suber L.), a species with high ecological and economic impact currently suffering a declining process, as a model organism. By means of a combination of observational, experimental and modelling approaches along the complete latitudinal distribution of the focal species, we will reach the following objectives: 1) To quantify and to model secondary growth and water use efficiency in natural populations along the species’ latitudinal distribution; 2) to determine the morphological traits and the physiological mechanisms implied on the response to drought and their tolerance thresholds; and 3) to identify the genetic mechanisms implied on drought resistance using transcriptomic and genomic techniques. The combination of multi-scale (from populations to individuals and genes) and multi-disciplinary (joining the latest advances in dendrochronology, modelling, ecophysiology, functional ecology, transcriptomics and genomics) approaches will allow the generation of a vast amount of information of high relevance from scientific and applied perspectives and the underlying mechanisms to acclimation and adaptation processes.

Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. PI: Luis Matías

I started my research at the University of Granada (Spain) working on plant-plant and plant-animal ecological interactions. Specifically, I studied the factors involved in forest regeneration and the naturalization of pine plantations, both positive aspects (i.e. seed dispersal by birds and mammals, plant-plant facilitation) and negative ones (i.e. seed predation, drought limitation, herbivory). Then, I focused my research on the implications of spatial distribution and scale with regard to the key processes determining community dynamics, such as seed dispersal, seed predation, and seedling establishment. After this, I started my PhD research by investigating the impact of climate change on Mediterranean forest regeneration. Specifically, I tested the way in which three contrasting climatic scenarios possible during the coming decades (drier, wetter or current climate) influence soil-nutrient dynamics and mineralization rates, CO2 fluxes from the soil to the atmosphere, community recruitment, and diversity. In addition, I studied the ecophysiological responses of plants to the different climatic scenarios in terms of biomass allocation and growth rate, and its relation to survival probability.