About me

I aim to understand the response of trees in different biomes to environmental change, with the ultimate objective of deciphering forest ecosystem dynamics and productivity in the short- and long-term past, present and future. To achieve this goal, I apply statistical modelling and GIS techniques to information derived from extensive dendrochronological networks, field observations and remote sensing data.

I graduated in Geographic Information Systems & Remote Sensing (BS and MSc) from the Siberian Federal University (Russia). I then obtained a PhD in Ecology with International Mention (November, 2016) from the University of Barcelona (Spain), supervised by Dr. Emilia Gutiérrez and Dr. Jordi Voltas (ERANET-Mundus EU grant). After a postdoctoral contract at the Woodwell Climate Research Center (USA), where I studied the effects of wildfire, land use and other disturbances on the spatial distribution, carbon cycle and ecosystem services of boreal primary forests in Siberia, I was awarded a 3-year Beatriu de Pinós fellowship to continue my research at the University of Lleida (Spain). Currently, I am investigating whether remotely sensed soil moisture products can provide information on changes in tree sensitivity to environmental factors at different scales (spatial and temporal) under climate warming, and thus indicate potential vegetation shifts in the near future. Overall, a better understanding of how drought stress induces changes in tree performance will open new avenues for research, management and policy-making in forest ecosystems.

I am committed to following the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles to optimise data reuse, and most of the datasets from my recent research are available in open public repositories (e.g. CORA Repositori de Dades de Recerca). At the same time, I have serious concerns about the widespread move by many academic publishers to full Open Access (OA), which places a financial burden that falls most heavily on early career researchers and those from low and middle income countries, and creates barriers to equity in publishing. This concern, shared by many other colleagues, is well expressed in the editorial of Journal of Biogeography (2023).