Bio-sketch

Spain

I finished my BSc in Environmental Sciences in 2004 at Universidad de Alcalá in Madrid, Spain. Afterwards, I obtained a MSc in Life Sciences from the same university with the thesis entitled: ‘Ecological succession on restored slopes under Mediterranean continental climate’ in 2007. Following the MSc I obtained my PhD in 2010. During my PhD I studied the interaction between vegetation and overland flow and its relationships with ecological succession patterns.

Guatemala

In 2010, I was granted with a two year post-doctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation for Spanish citizens in foreign countries (MAEC-AECID). The research project was 'Participatory research project: Cloud forest conservation initiative, Uspantán, Quiché, Guatemala'. The project area is among the poorest and most underdeveloped regions of Guatemala and is suffering severe deforestation that has compromised the area’s biodiversity, ecological resources, and socio-economic potential. In this project, we established cooperative relationships with eight indigenous 'conservation communities' to promote the sustainable use and conservation of forest resources through progressive social initiatives. We also performed the first forest inventory in the pristine cloud forest of Cerro El Amay. This project was conducted thanks to a collaboration with Conservation Imaging NGO.

Australia

In 2012, I started working at Kings Park (Perth, Australia). During my time there, I worked on a restoration project in Koolanooka Hills, located in the Midwest region on the edge of the Wheatbelt (Western Australia). In this project, we worked in partnership with Sinosteel Midwest Corporation Limited (SMC) in a Banded Ironstone Formation. The challenge was to restore a threatened ecological community. At Koolanooka we studied the interactions between seed ecology and soil conditions under different climate scenarios.

France and UK

In 2014 I moved to Europe to work in AMAP (Montpellier) and the CEH (Wallingford) where I studied the role of vegetation (particularly plant roots) and micro-organisms in protecting soil against erosion processes. After that, I have been working in AMAP in the project TALVEG2 where we aimed to identify root functional traits and microbial processes enhancing ecosystem services of restored environments.

France and Mexico

Since 2019, I have been working in the project ECOPICS where we study how land use induced shifts in belowground plant traits, soil microbial and faunal diversity and functionality affects soil C cycling processes along altitudinal gradients in the Frech Alps and the Pico de Orizaba (Mexico).

Spain again!

Since December 2020 I have joined the microbiology area of the Biodiversity and Conservation Unit in the Department of Biology, Geology, Physics and Inorganic Chemistry of the Rey Juan Carlos University. Here, I teach Microbiology in the Degree in Biology (2nd year) and Microbiology in the Degree in Environmental Engineering (2nd year).

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