Mi línea de trabajo se enfoca hacia el ámbito de la Paleoecología/Paleoclimatología y la Fitogeografía de zonas áridas. La paleoecología es el estudio de los patrones y las causas responsables de la estructura y funcionamiento de los ecosistemas a una escala temporal mayor que la empleada tradicionalmente en Ecología, y que va desde los últimos siglos hasta los millones de años de antigüedad. La paleoclimatología es el estudio de los patrones y las causas del clima a escalas de tiempo que preceden al registro instrumental (~200 años).

Para mi trabajo ocupo registros un tanto inusuales, ya que estudio las “paleomadrigueras”, que son acumulaciones orgánicas hechas por roedores habitantes de zonas rocosas. Contienen fecas, huesos, insectos, y restos vegetales encasillados en orina cristalizada (llamada amberat por su consistencia parecida al ámbar). Son capaces de permanecer por milenios al abrigo de una cueva o alero. A su vez, constituyen una herramienta poderosa (aunque poco ortodoxa) para reconstruir como han fluctuado las comunidades del desierto a través del tiempo.

My area of research lies within the realms of Paleoecology/ Paleoclimatology and Plant Biogeography as applied to arid regions. Paleoecology is the study of the patterns and causes that describe the structure and function of ecosystems at temporal scales usually much longer than those involved in ecological studies, from anywhere between the last few centuries to million of years ago. Paleoclimatology is the study of climate patterns and their causes at timescales older than those available through the instrumental record (or the last 200 years).

The basis of my work involves the use of rodent middens, heaps of organic residues (feces, bone, insects, feathers, and plant remains) piled up and sealed within crystallized urine (amberat) by rock-dwelling rodents. Commonly known as packrat middens in the southwestern USA, in arid climates they can persist in caves and crevices for tens of thousands of years. As unique biological archives, rodent middens are unsurpassed as tools (albeit somewhat unorthodox) for reconstructing desert communities through time.

My current research deals with the modern flora and Quaternary paleoflora of the Atacama Desert and the Pacific slope of the Andes of northern Chile. Over the last few years, my collaborators and I have been using midden records from the Atacama to address key questions regarding this desert’s hydrological cycle over the last 40,000-50,000 years. The Andes Cordillera of northern Chile (aka the central Andes) straddles both the tropical and extratropical rainfall belts. Hence, our research is driven by trying to increase our understanding of how these climate systems have interacted in the past (through investigating the chronology, direction and structure of climate changes) and how they might do so in the future. As our knowledge on the distribution and diversity of past desert plant communities in northern Chile increases, we seek to understand the implications for biogeography and eventually, conservation of modern desert communities, many of which have been highly dynamic through time.