Biographical Sketch
General
1998-2003 B.S. Environmental Sciences, University of Jaén (Spain).
2004-2008 Ph.D. Ecology, University Pablo de Olavide (Spain).
2008-2012 Assistant Professor Ecology University Pablo de Olavide (Spain).
I am an Associate Professor at the Ecology area of the Physical, Chemical and Natural Systems Department of the University Pablo de Olavide (Seville, Spain).
I was born in 1975 in Jaén (S Spain). My scientific career is mostly devoted to understanding how relict forests from the Mediterranean mountains are responding to the ongoing global change. My research uses mainly field observations of environmental variables (soil water content, temperature), stand structure (trees size and age), tree growth (Dendrochronology) and Ecophysiology (carbon and water balance) and is being carried out at multiple scales, from tree level (xylogenesis, xylem water potential, or stomatal conductance) to large-scale field studies with sites located all over the distribution area of the species.
During my Ph.D. at the University of Jaén , I was trained as a Forest Ecologist with a strong emphasis on field-based tree physiology, focused on Abies pinsapo (a Mediterranean fir) as experimental system. Some of my Ph.D. work on the topic of climate and land-use changes interactions includes novel approaches to evaluate the interacting effects of climate and forest-cover changes on tree mortality and growth (Linares et al. 2009, Global Ecology and Biogeography 18: 485-497), as well as to understanding how competition modulates the adaptation capacity of forests to climatic stress (Linares et al. 2010, Journal of Ecology 98: 592-603), and one of the first demonstrations of how tree-to-tree competition and drought limit the response of intrinsic water-use efficiency to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (Linares et al. 2009, Oecologia, 161: 611-624). In addition to my studies performed on Abies pinsapo , I have also tested the topic of drought limitation of the response of tree growth and water-use efficiency to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on Abies alba (a temperate fir) and Pinus halepensis (a Mediterranean pine).
The results of theses studies are challenging the conceptual paradigm employed to predict the extent that rising CO2 may stimulate tree growth and whether plant acclimation to elevated CO2 and climate change could explain deviations from a projected CO2-induced growth enhancement. An indication of the novelty and relevance of these findings is its publication in some of the most important scientific journals in the field of Ecology and Global Change (e.g. Journal of Ecology, Global Change Biology, Climatic Change and Oecologia, among others, see the Publications List for full references) and that, some of them, have generated one of the most citations thus far , for instance, in Journal of Ecology papers published in 2010.
The skills acquired during my Ph.D. were complemented with the short-term research stays I have conducted at different research centers ( Centre for Ecology and Hydrology , Merlewood Research Station, UK; Centro de investigación y tecnología agroalimentaria de Aragón , Spain; Estación experimental del Zaidín , CSIC, Spain; and Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología , CSIC, Spain) and during a post-doctoral short-term research stay at University Abdelmalek Essaadi of Tetouan, Morocco. During that stay I started and leaded a new research program on global change effects on Atlas cedar ( Cedrus atlantica ) forests. This research program aims to evaluate how the human-induced soil degradation interacts with several global change drivers (including global warming, changes in rainfall regimes and the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration) to determine the structure, growth and dynamics of Atlas cedar.
During 2009 and 2010 I became awarded with research financial support from the own research program of the University Pablo de Olavide and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Develop, which will be funding my work during the next years. Apart from setting up my own research program, which is focused on endangered tree species dynamics at high-elevation Mediterranean mountains, I have been involved in a series of national and international collaborations in different topics, including the study of Pinus ponderosa plantations from Southern Patagonian (Chile), and the participation on a wide research program aimed to understanding the functioning of Pinus nigra forest from the Iberian peninsula and northern Morocco.
My research has led to numerous publications in high quality international journals. Many of them are multi-author works, reflecting the collaborative approach that I take to research and the large number of connections established with other scientists. I hope that my research activities and collaborative approach will give me an increasingly high profile within the ecological community. I actively collaborate to disseminate ecological knowledge among the public, indeed the results from my research have been highlighted in newspapers and radio stations (see the press room for details).
