Biodiversity Health Research Team

Research Overview

I am a terrestrial ecologist particularly interested in amphibian disease ecology, wildlife conservation and environmental sciences. My research expertise includes amphibian infectious disease, terrestrial field ecology, spatial analysis, amphibian thermal physiology, climate change, species distribution and occupancy modelling, molecular analysis and amphibian microbiome interactions.

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Background

I studied Biology at the Faculty of Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) completing my degree in 2007. My bachelor thesis project consisted on modelling the variation in daily temperature in relation to potential outbreaks of chytridiomycosis in mountain amphibians from the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, Mexico. Shortly after, I followed my studies with a Masters in Environmental Biology at the Ecology Institute (UNAM) completing my degree in 2010. I developed a thesis project on environmental and geographic factors that influence the incidence and prevalence of chytridiomycosis in amphibians of the mountain areas of Guerrero, Mexico.

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These two projects developed my interest in in wildlife disease ecology, especially in amphibians, which lead me to pursue a PhD in this topic. I came to Australia to undertake my PhD at Griffith University in collaboration with World Heritage Australia, Southern Cross University and James Cook University. My PhD focused on studying the distribution, ecology, disease and physiology of a cryptic, mountain-top endemic frog (Philoria loveridgei) in the face of climate change. My research sites where in the Tweed Caldera Rim within Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, in mid-eastern Australia.

In my dissertation I examined how: (i) sensitivity to environmental change (i.e. changes in calling phenology, thermal tolerances, and disease susceptibility), and (ii) exposure to environmental change (i.e. detectability, occupancy and species distribution, and thermal environment and microhabitat buffering), influenced the vulnerability of this anuran. My latest collaborative research project focused on amphibian skin microbiota, investigating the effects of climatic conditions and chytridiomycosis on the diversity of frog skin bacteria, with Dr. Eria Rebollar and Dr. Reid Harris (James Madison University and Centre for Genomic Sciences).