PhD Agustín Vitali

I am a PhD student broadly interested in community ecology with focus on pollination and seed dispersal mutualisms, ecological networks, and invasion ecology. I do my research in the temperate forest of Patagonia, where the invasion of non-native ungulates threatens plant-animal mutualisms. Specifically, I am studying how a keystone interaction among a hummingbird, a mistletoe, and a marsupial influence on structure and dynamics of the community. Moreover, I evaluate how the disruption of this interaction by non-native ungulates produces cascading effects and leads to community disassembly.