Main Focus
I am interested in the carbon cycle of the Amazon rainforest and broader Tropical South America. From an atmospheric perspective, I try to understand the main controls, sources, and sinks of CO2, CH4, CO, and other trace gases. For this it is crucial to understand the physical atmospheric processes governing how gases move during daytime and nighttime, as well as how the vegetation responds to climatic drivers such as drought. To achieve this, I use atmospheric transport models, gas mole fraction measurements, and eddy covariance fluxes together with large datasets to disentangle processes at local and regional scales. Some of the main questions I try to answer concern how Amazon and savanna vegetation respond to different drivers, and what the long-term carbon budget of the Amazon region is — including its role as a source or sink during extreme drought events such as those in 2015/2016 and 2023/2024 drought.
Curriculum Vitae
My background is in Environmental Engineering (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia). After the bachelor's I completed a Master's in Environmental Sciences at Wageningen University, with a focus on air quality and atmospheric chemistry, including a thesis on the effects of biomass burning on the Amazon carbon cycle. I then did my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and Wageningen University, working on atmospheric modeling of greenhouse gases in the Amazon, largely in the context of the ATTO project. After a postdoctoral position at MPI-BGC focused on greenhouse gas exchange at ATTO, I am currently leading the junior research group Atmosphere-Biosphere Signal Attribution in the Tropics (BSAT) at MPI-BGC.
I have experience with atmospheric transport models (WRF-GHG and STILT) and regional inversion systems (Jena CarboScope). On the observational side, I’m extending observational capacity in tropical South America leading a flask sampling effort in Colombia and a mobile eddy covariance system, targeting ecosystem dynamics in the Orinoco river basin. I co-convene international sessions at EGU and AGU on tropical forest carbon cycling, and supervise several PhD students at the moment.