Education: University of Chile, Pedagogía en Biología, 1978. University of Chile, Doctorado en Ecología, 1993. Institute of Ecosystem Studies (IES), New York, Postdoctoral, 1994. Associate Professor, University of Chile. Adjunct Investigator, Institute in Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB).

Honors and prizes: BBVA Prize in Conservation Biology Research, 2004.

Research: My interests are in invasion biology. The main question I am working on is what properties make an ecosystem prone or resistant to biological invasion. This question is being addressed at three spatial scales: a) regional level. My colleagues and I in IEB, are comparing exotic floras from climatically-similar mediterranean-type regions across hemispheres. Although this comparative approach is frequent in studies of convergence among native biota, it has not been used in studies of exotic floras. This approach is being addressed through comparisons of published lists of exotic and native plant species in different mediterranean-type climate regions; b) landscape level. I am endeavouring to examine the meta-population structure of exotic plant species living in fragmented landscapes of central Chile so as to evaluate patterns of forest patch occupancies as a function of landscape attributes such as patch size, distance to propagule sources and isolation degree of patches and to describe and correlate landscape attributes with patch occupancy. This approach is being taken in Pinus radiata and Teline monspessulana using satellite images; c) patch level. Here we are examining individual, demographic and community responses of exotic species as a function of microclimatic variation either within and between forest patches. This approach will be addressed using natural and field experiments as well as demographic models which will capture the demographic bottlenecks that constrains plant establishment and spread across landscape. The second question that orients my research is: what are the ecological consequences of the establishment and spread of an exotic plant species? I am addressing this question at the patch level in Pinus radiata, Rubus spp. and Teline monspessulana.

Publications