​I earned my B.S. in Biology from the Universidad del Pais Vasco (Spain) and my MSc. of Biodiversity of Tropical Areas and Conservation from Spain's Universidad Menendez Pelayo and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC).  For my Masters thesis, I studied liana distributions along an altitudinal gradient in the Ecuadorian Andes.

I got my PhD at University of Miami, advised by Dr. Ken Feeley. My research focused on understanding forest dynamics in the Andes-Amazon region at two different scales.  At the pan-Andean scale, I researched shifts in forest composition caused by changes in species’ geographical ranges due to climate change. In other words, I studied altitudinal migrations of plant species.  At an organismal scale, I investigated the role of bamboo as a potential modulator of local and regional forest dynamics. 

I am currently a Marie Curie Fellow at University of Leeds working on the RESCATA project - Species Responses to Climate Change in the Amazon to Andes region - funded by the European Union. As plant species in the Andes-Amazon region respond to climate change, their population size may change if they fail to migrate or acclimate, but the factors promoting species success or failure in these forests remain unknown. In RESCATA, we will test the role of several potential drivers of species success. This project will only be possible thanks to the collaboration with many researchers via ForestPlots.net, sANDES and Red de Bosques among others.