We are happy to host Lara Quaglini, a PhD student from the Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca. Lara is working on the drivers of invasion success of invasive plants and their impact on plant and soil biodiversity, mentored by Sandra Citterio, Rodolfo Gentili and Florencia Yannelli. During her stay in Mendoza Lara is collaborating with Florencia on a conceptual framework for the effective management of an invasive plant, Senecio inaequidens, to guide restoration actions.
Our colleague James Deseagher is visiting us until the end of July. James is a researcher at the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) in Avignon, France. He is collaborating with Diego in a functional classification of flower morphology to predict plant-pollinator interactions. We look forward for several weeks of intense collaboration!
This past week we had our annual group retreat, first time after the COVID pandemic. This year we planned a writing retreat, with several hours of writing every day, plus group discussions, hikes, board games, and shared meals.
For the retreat we stayed at Alejandra Medero’s house in Las Carditas (¡gracias Ale!), a mountain village 80 km from Mendoza city. Each day we wrote in the morning, each group member worked on their own paper, thesis chapter, grant proposal, or whatever they wanted to write. We set goals at the start of the retreat and reported regularly on our progress. In the afternoons we had a discussion on writing tips, a debate on how to go about addressing applied questions using what we have learned with our own research, a couple of hikes, and an excursion to a local brewery. During the evenings we played board games while sharing a bottle of wine or two. All in all, a productive week, a nice break from the daily routine, and a great way to stimulate group cohesion.
Our group has a new logo, masterfully designed by Virginia Chirilá. It represents an ecological network, in which species or individuals (colored circles) are connected by interactions (grey lines). You can follow her in Instagram to keep up to date about her art and science. Thanks Vicky for artistic generosity!
Yesterday, Miranda Lede defended her undergraduate (licenciatura) thesis at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the National University of Cuyo. Miranda was interested in how climate and mismatches in the timing (phenology) of flowering and bee nesting influenced the demography of solitary bees. To address this question she used data from our group’s database on flowering and solitary bee nesting between 2006 and 2019. She worked in Villavicencio Nature Reserve, a private protected area north of the city of Mendoza. Her study was based on five species of solitary bees that fall in a gradient of specialization, from highly specialized species feeding mostly on pollen of a single plant species, to generalists feeding on several plant species. Miranda found that phenological mismatches and climate tend to influence the reproductive success of the most specialized bee species, while climate alone seems to influence the reproduction of the most generalized bees. The two examiners of the thesis praised Miranda for her excellent work. Congratulations Miranda!
This morning Rosario Miranda defended her undergraduate (licenciatura) thesis at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the National University of Cuyo. For this project she used mathematical models and computer simulations to explore how the presence of species with aggressive behavior influence plant and pollinator assemblages and their interactions. Her results indicate that the presence of aggressive species may have strong consequences on community structure.
Rosario is now off to Belgium to start a Master degree in tropical biodiversity and ecosystems, during which she will spend extended periods in Belgium, Madagascar, and French Guiana. Best wishes Rosario for this new stage in your career!
Alisa (Lisi) Álvarez defended today her doctoral thesis, an ecological study of plant invasions in mountain ecosystems of Mendoza. Congratulations Lisi for an outstanding study with important practical implications!
Lisi’s thesis combines observational and experimental studies to assess the effect of two drivers of plant invasions in the mountain environments of our region: tourist trails and livestock. As a whole, her results indicate that mountain hiking trails and livestock may facilitate plant invasions in the region. This work represents a valuable contribution to the understanding of the ecological processes regulating the spread of non-native plants, and offer useful information for management actions.
One of the chapters of Lisi’s thesis is already published as a journal article in Biological Invasions. And stay tuned for more publications coming soon!
As we try to do every December, yesterday we had our end-of-year get-together. We had a fun time in a pot luck dinner which included lots of home-made food, drinks, and even some dancing. A nice way to wrap up a great year doing science together.
Earlier this month, Benjamin Schwarz defended his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Benjamin’s thesis focused on the temporal dynamics of plant-pollinator networks, with a nice combination of literature synthesis and field observational and experimental work. He was mentored by Jochen Fründ, Carsten Dormann and myself.
In case you are curious, two of his thesis chapters are already published, one published in Oikos and another in Oecologia. Check them out!
Yamila defended today her undergraduate (licenciatura) thesis at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the National University of Cuyo. She studied the impacts of managed honeybees on the abundance, diversity and composition of native bees in Villavicencio Nature Reserve.
The thesis examiners agreed in that Yamila had conducted an interesting study that addressed questions relevant for understanding how apiculture may influence the native pollinators in natural ecosystems. Congratulations Yamila for the excellent work!
 | Diego Vázquez on End-of-year group gathering |
 | EDGAR CHAVEZ GONZALE… on End-of-year group gathering |
| EDGAR on Annual group retreat in El Leo… |
| Edgar Chávez-Gonzále… on Edgar Chávez González is visit… |
| Diego Vázquez on Exotic plants and pollination… |
Ecological Interactions Lab 