Miquel De Cáceres Ainsa

Associate (M)

PROGRAM / Landscape dynamics

I work at the junction between biological sciences, environmental sciences, statistics and computational sciences. I am mostly interested in the development of quantitative approaches for the study of the structure and functioning of terrestrial plant communities at scales ranging from the forest stand to landscapes and regions. My work can be divided into two broad research areas, ecological statistics and ecological modelling. Regarding ecological statistics, I am interested in improving the quantitative frameworks used to describe, summarize and analyse the structure, composition and dynamics of plant communities. My long-term goal in ecological modelling is to develop, promote and apply modelling frameworks to better understand and anticipate the response of Mediterranean forest ecosystems to global change drivers at the local to regional scales. To this aim, I work in close collaboration with leading experts in forest hydrology, tree physiology, forest dynamics. I also work closely with the forest administration to promote the application of these tools both for the day-to-day monitoring of drought impacts as well as for the evaluation of climate scenarios, with the aim to provide information useful for forest planning at local to regional scales. I am deeply engaged in the development, documentation and user technical support of several packages for the R statistical environment.