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个人简介
Background
I chose to study a BSc on Environmental Sciences because it promotes a holistic approach to the environment, trying to understand the big picture of the relations between the different biotic and abiotic components. After finishing my BSc, I completed a master on biotechnology, but my research career started really in February 2007, when I got a PhD studentship founded by the regional government of Andalusia (Spain).
Precipitation gradient approach
I developed mi PhD thesis in the area of Physical Geography (University of Málaga). I was involved in a project called HYDROSUR, planned to study the soil hydrological behavior of selected small catchments along a precipitation gradient in the South of Spain. The main goal of this project was comparing the soil and hydrological properties of the selected catchments in order to make predictions of future responses in a climatic change context.
PhD
One of the catchments we visited for the HYDROSUR project had an annual precipitation of 570 mm. In this site I realized how different the north- and south-facing hillslope were. The catchment was located in what can be considered a threshold area, i.e. areas that separate the arid ecogeomorphic systems, controlled by abiotic factors, from the humid ecogeomorphic systems, controlled by biotic processes. These areas are especially sensitive to land use and climate changes, because only a relatively small disturbance is needed to shift the border between wet and arid ecogeomorphic systems. I hypothesized that aspect could be that small “climatic” change, since south-facing hillslopes receive a higher amount of radiation that would additionally limit water availability for vegetation during the drought periods. The aim of that piece of research was estimating the influence of aspect on different processes such as vegetation response to water availability in field conditions (stress), runoff generation, soil water repellency and soil moisture evolution.
I found dramatic differences between hillslopes in plant cover distribution, plant response to water stress, soil hydrological response and soil moisture dynamic. Taking in account these findings, I proposed different land managements depending on aspect and I highlighted the importance of shrub cover as a first step in reforestation strategies.
In the final year of fellowship I enjoyed a short stay at the Mendel University in Brno, in the Department of Agrochemistry, Soil Science, Microbiology and Plant Nutrition. I learned different techniques to measure soil respiration, nitrification and ammonization.
Postdoc
From 2012 to 2014 I worked as postdoc (Marie Curie) at the Université Catholique de Louvain, in the team of Prof. Bas van Wesemael. I studied the soil organic carbon (SOC) evolution after land abandonment along a precipitation gradient in the South of Spain. I selected a chronosequence of abandoned fields in four sites along the gradient, by mean of aerial photographs. The hypothesis was that SOC recovery is faster and the capacity to store carbon is higher in the wet extreme of the gradient. SOC was compared to NDVI, as an estimator of net primary production (NPP), in order to test if SOC accumulation was an input-driven process. The results confirmed only the first part of this hypothesis. Effectively, SOC recovery rate was proportional to precipitation, but the total amount of SOC that soils can store was not. After this finding, the next step was determining the nature of the sequestered carbon, so we applied different SOC fractionation protocols. During the development of this project I acquired a deep knowledge about the carbon cycle, in addition to technical skills related to Vis-NIR spectroscopy, different carbon fractionation protocols, multivariate statistic, R software and FORTRAN. Moreover, the application process for this fellowship gave me experience in designing research projects, since it had to be original and schemed by the applicant.
From October 2014 to May 2015 I worked in a short project to study the soil quality under different land uses along a precipitation gradient in the South of Spain. This project obtained a grant award from the International Campus of Excellence Andalucia Tech (Málaga, Spain) to be developed.
Current position
In June 2015 I started as KTP Associate at Cranfield University and AB Sugar. The KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) scheme is designed to deliver applicable research from the University to private companies. This position will help me to improve my modelling and spatial analysis skills. Moreover, I will receive training in bussines-related topics.
研究兴趣
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