Linear Infrastructures as Drivers and Model Systems of Global Change

My research focuses on how transport and energy infrastructures influence biodiversity, particularly wildlife, ecological processes, species interactions, and ecosystem services in human-dominated landscapes, and on how these effects can be understood and anticipated in the context of global change.  

I study infrastructures because they represent major drivers of global change and because they enable and amplify other key pressures on ecosystems. Transport and energy infrastructures facilitate land-use change, resource extraction and overexploitation, biological invasions, and multiple forms of pollution. Through chemical emissions and altered biogeochemical cycles, they also contribute, directly and indirectly, to climate change. These effects are not restricted to roads, but are shared by a wide range of linear and point infrastructures, including railways, power lines, pipelines, wind and solar energy facilities, dams, and associated service networks, whose cumulative and interacting impacts shape ecological patterns and processes across large spatial and temporal scales.

At the same time, infrastructures constitute particularly effective model systems for testing hypotheses related to global change and human pressures on ecosystems. Their spatially explicit configuration, strong and predictable environmental gradients, and clearly identifiable sources of disturbance provide valuable opportunities to explore mechanisms, compare impacted and non-impacted areas, and assess how multiple stressors interact. Working across infrastructure networks allows me to address general ecological questions while remaining grounded in real-world systems.

Although my research considers biodiversity as a whole, it places a strong emphasis on animals, particularly terrestrial vertebrates, given their ecological roles, sensitivity to landscape transformation, and relevance for conservation and management. Depending on the research question, I select the most appropriate model species or taxonomic group, ranging from ants to large mammals such as rhinoceroses. This work is always conducted in close collaboration with taxonomic and regional specialists, ensuring ecological realism and robust interpretation.

From a geographical perspective, Doñana represents my main long-term study system, where I have developed much of my empirical and conceptual work. However, my research is not confined to a single region. I work across a wide diversity of ecosystems, adapting study systems to the questions being addressed and to emerging opportunities. These include, among others, the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the Sahara Desert, Mediterranean islands, the drylands of New Zealand, and the savannas of southern Africa. This comparative approach allows me to explore infrastructure–biodiversity interactions across contrasting environmental, ecological, and socio-economic contexts.

I am strongly committed to open access, dissemination, and knowledge transfer. All my scientific outputs are made openly accessible, ensuring that research results are available to the scientific community, practitioners, and society at large. Beyond academic publication, I actively engage in dissemination and, in particular, in the transfer of scientific knowledge to management, planning, and policy contexts, with the aim of contributing to informed decision-making and effective conservation action.