I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research Program and a Visiting Postdoctoral Associate at the Southeast Environmental Research Center from the Florida International University. My research interests are in the areas of: predator-prey interactions, food-webs, phenotypic plasticity, behavioral ecology, stream ecology, animal behavior, ichthyology, biological invasions, and science education.
My graduate studies focused on the effects of predation by fish on the morphology, antipredator responses, and ecological role of the amphidromous shrimp Xiphocaris elongata.
Project Info:
I am currently working with the Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research Program (LTER), where I sample shrimp and fishes in streams of the Luquillo Experimental Forest (El Yunque). I am also working with LTER databases to try to relate how environmental variables affect shrimp populations. I also run experiments in laboratory settings to relate the effect of predatory fishes to shrimp behavior.
In Florida International University, I am participating in preliminary experiments that will test the ecological role of shrimp and crayfish in the Everglades. I will use this data and compare it to data I will generate in Puerto Rico through experiments and predictive models that will try to examine the role of exotic crayfish in freshwater ecosystems of the island.