Postdoctoral researcher at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid

I graduated in biology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and earned a Master of Science in Ecology there, too. I then took my studies to Princeton University in New Jersey (US), where I defended my Ph.D. thesis titled “The Mechanisms of Plant Interactions: To the Root of the Problem” in November 2021. After a quick postdoc over there, I hopped back across the ocean, and now I’m a postdoc at Rey Juan Carlos University’s Instituto de Investigación en Cambio Global.

I am broadly interested in plant community ecology and plant-plant interactions. My past research has focused on exploring plant interactions through the lens of biophysical and ecophysiological mechanisms that govern the impact of one plant on the biological fitness of its neighbor. I am particularly intrigued by belowground interactions and endeavor to understand how plants engage in competition or facilitation through their root systems, employing a game-theoretic framework.

Currently, I am a member of the COUSIN Project team, where I work on identifying the functional value of crop wild relatives for sustainable agriculture. My research within this project focuses on characterizing key traits of wild relatives of wheat that can enhance complementarity in varietal mixtures, with the goal of improving agroecological practices and increasing productivity in a sustainable way.

I am also interested in the role of large herbivores in shaping European vegetation structure, building on Frans Vera’s (2000) hypothesis that open-canopy systems were a dominant natural state prior to widespread human impact. In this context, I study how restoring herbivory processes can inform rewilding strategies, with a particular emphasis on promoting science-based rewilding in the Gredos region.