Short CV and Research Interests

I am Biologist and Doctor in Biological Science from Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela. I have collaborated in several projects about actual ecology and paleoecology in savanna ecosystems. Recently I have awarded a PhD with a dissertation about the Holocene vegetation and fire dynamics in the Gran Sabana, Venezuelan Guayana. Currently I´m collaborating in the trans-disciplinary project "Impact of climate change and human occupation in the savanna-forest mosaics of the Orinoco Llanos", funded by Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (FONACIT), Venezuela. In the frame of this project I´m doing a posdoc stay in the Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamic of University of Göttingen, from October 2011 to October 2012, with a Fundayacucho-DAAD fellowship.

My main research interest is focused in the role of indigenous peoples in the configuration of Holocene landscapes in South America. The understanding of interactions between human activities (cultivation, fire, and other forms of land transformation) and the spatio-temporal changes in the rainfall regime in lowlands, uplands and highlands of Venezuela is one of my main goals. I´m also interested in linking Holocene paleoecology with conservation. At this respect paleoecological studies have a big potential of providing a broader temporal context to issues of great relevance in the current Global Change scenario, as the human intervention of tropical forest and the long term use of fire in a variety of plant communities.