Ciencia Puerto Rico

I am broadly interested in biodiversity, from an ecological aspect, to how invasive species impact environments, and how traditional taxonomical work intersects with modern systematics. My interest has propelled me to gain various research experiences as an undergraduate student in Puerto Rico, the US, and Costa Rica. Most of my undergraduate work focusses around two major themes: the ecology of the invasive mealybug Hypogeococcus sp. in Puerto Rican native cacti, and soil macrofauna biodiversity and ecology. While working with soil invertebrates, I was captivated by Charles Darwin’s most humble creatures: the earthworms. For my Master’s thesis, I studied the diversity of the North American endemic earthworm family Sparganophilidae in the Southeastern Appalachian piedmont. These are semi-aquatic organisms that can be easily found at streams, rivers and lakes shorelines, but with poorly understood ecology and diversity. For my PhD thesis, I am focusing on the biodiversity and evolution of earthworm lineages native to the Caribbean islands.