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).
My research interests span the fields of terrestrial ecology, stable isotope biogeochemistry, ecosystem modelling and the impacts of climate change on natural ecosystems. More specifically, I am interested in understanding the processes underlying the complexity and diversity of ecosystem response patterns to environmental forcing, and how these patterns are spatially structured across environmental gradients. To this end, I develop efficient inference tools and algorithms based on mixed modelling principles, that are capable of handling the imbalances and interdependencies between observations typically associated with ecological datasets. I have successfully applied these models to characterise composite patterns of environmental signals that are present across multiple spatio-temporal scales (local, regional, continental) and to ascertain how these patterns vary along biogeographical gradients.
I also use GIS techniques to characterise the effects of global change on forest ecosystems, focusing on tree physiology, vegetation dynamics and ecosystem services. For example, I have developed an approach to map forest stability levels by combining field observations, remote sensing and other geospatial data.