Ruth Sanchez Bragado

Chef de groupe

PROGRAMME / Gestion multifonctionnelle des forêts

She studied Forest Engineering from 2004 to 2007 and subsequently completed an MSc program in Tropical and International Forest Ecology in Georg-August-Universität Göttingen of Germany (2007–2010) collaborating with the Biological Station at 'La Selva Station' (Costa Rica, 2009), Visayas State University (Philippines, 2008), and the Smithsonian Research Institute in Panama (2007). Following this, she obtained a PhD in Plant Biology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona (UB), from 2011 to 2015. Her professional trajectory has focused on the study of climate change impacts on plant physiology, with research spanning various crops (e.g., wheat, maize) and woody species in tropical and Mediterranean ecosystems.

Her first postdoctoral position was a three-year consultancy (2016–2019) at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in collaboration with Bayer. During this period, her research involved evaluating screening tools in field trials (conducted in Mexico, France, and Spain) to estimate inflorescence photosynthesis and its contribution to final grain yield. Her work also included developing novel methods for measuring spike photosynthesis and analyzing δ13C from different organs as eco-physiological markers. She conducted extended research stays (>3 months) in Mexico and France during her consultancy with CIMMYT. Her second postdoctoral position (2018–2020) was held at the Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, where she contributed to the MINNECO project. This project examined the phenotypic plasticity of wheat yield and quality in response to heat shock during reproductive phases in contrasting genotypes. Her research focused on the source-sink balances of C3 cereals and carbon translocation from photosynthetic organs to sinks under varying conditions. Subsequently, she worked part-time as a postdoctoral researcher at UB, where she contributed to the development of platforms to identify novel traits for improving agricultural crop productivity. This included collaborating on projects related to affordable field-based High-Throughput Phenotyping Platforms (HTPPs). Later, she was employed as an assistant researcher at IRTA (Agroforestry Team, Fruit Tree Program) in Caldes de Montbui, Barcelona (2020–2022). Her research here focused on characterizing the inter- and intra-specific variability of forest and agroforestry species and selecting reproductive material for breeding programs aimed at production, adaptation, and conservation within the context of climate change. Currently, she is a researcher at the CTFC (2022–present). Her focus in collaboration with a public regional company, Forestal Catalana, is based on characterizing inter- and intraspecific variability in forest and agroforestry species, as well as on selecting base materials for production, adaptation, and preservation of species' genetic resources in the context of climate change (Contract 2021-2024). In addition to the primary goal of selection—i.e., meeting production requirements (production/technological traits)—the scope also includes biodiversity conservation (RUMIAR 2024-2026, GO YesWeCast 2024-2026) and the selection of adaptive traits, considering the major/potential biotic and abiotic threats to each species within future climate scenarios (INTERREG SUDOE CoopTree 2023-2025). Additionally, she is involved in a research project focusing on the sustainability of stone pine (P. pinea L.) production through nut tree management (DEMO +PinyoCat 2024-2026). This project includes assessing damage caused by Leptoglossus occidentalis on pine nut production, as well as conducting experimental assays on nut production, adaptation, and physiological performance of P. pinea scions grafted onto different rootstocks under varying water availability conditions. In parallel she is involved as a CoIP in characterizing the physiological patterns related to other Pinus species in PLASTICINE project (2023-2026). pinea nut productivity.
To date, she has authored 24 scientific papers (first author on 12) in international journals ranked in the first quartile (SCI). Her current h-index is 13 (Scopus). Furthermore, she is employed as a part-time Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Physiology at the University of Barcelona (2012–2018, and 2020–present).