About me
stream and riparian ecology, ecological networks, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning, global change
Broadly, my research focuses on effects of global environmental changes and disturbances on ecosystem structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems.
I finished my PhD in the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology at the University of Vigo (Spain) in 2012. My advisor was Isabel Pardo Gamundi.
My PhD was focused on detrital energy pathways in stream ecosystems, and the effects of temperature and food quality on detritivore life history, as a proxy to understand the effects of climate warming and replacement of native riparian species by exotic ones.
I worked in a broad range of aquatic ecosystems through the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive in Galicia (NW Spain) and Balearic Islands (W Spain), a program to develop and integrate water policy and management across the European Union (2003-2009).
Later, I worked in the REFRESH project (2012-2013), where we conducted manipulative field experiments accounting for the expected future impacts of climate change and land-use on streams. Specifically, we performed these experiments in streams of different trophic condition to determine how water abstraction affects water chemistry, hydromorphological variables and invertebrate assemblages, and the magnitude of these effects.
During 3 years (2014-2017), I was a postdoctoral researcher in John Richardson´s lab at the University of British Columbia and in Wyatt Cross´lab at the Montana State University. Then I returned to the University the Vigo to continue my research on how anthropogenic impacts (i.e. nutrient pollution, urbanisation, deforestation) generate changes in both quantity and quality of food resources available, promoting nutrient mismatches with consumers and consequently, negative effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
Nowadays, I am teaching outside university due to the lack of financiation in Spain to continue my research, and collaborating with some researchers from around the world.
Please contact me with research interests.