Researchers

I am a research staff member at Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Hermosillo, Sonora since 1989. I received my Master degree at UNAM with a dissertation on the temporal patterns of litterfall and litter decomposition in the tropical deciduous forest of Chamela and my PhD degree at the University of Cambridge in England. My doctorate dissertation analyzed the primary productivity and leaf traits of a chalk grassland in Cambridgshire. As an ecosystem ecologist my research interests have centered in understanding the structure and functioning –biomass, primary productivity, decomposition and nutrient cycling of water-limited ecosystems, mainly Sonoran Desert ecosystems and the tropical deciduous forest in México. Another aspect of my research has been the study of plant mortality and drought resistance in Parkinsonia species in the Sonoran Desert. I am also currently working on the impact of selective cutting of non-timber species on the biodiversity of the tropical deciduous forest and the mechanisms of forest regeneration after extraction of resources, and also studying the recovery of biomass and carbon storage along a chronosequence of tropical secondary forests. I am a member of the Chamela Site of the Red Mex-LTER (Mexican long-term ecological research network) analyzing the vulnerability of the tropical deciduous forest ecosystem to land-use change and climate change.