Lucía Vivanco: Lucía was a graduate student
with a fellowship from the University of Buenos Aires and the YPF Foundation
of Argentina who defended her thesis in July 2008. She is now working
as a postdoctoral associate at UC Irvine, with Dr. Jennifer Martiny,
examining the role of microbial communities in salt marshes on the California
coast email: vivanco@ifeva.edu.ar
Marina
Gonzalez-Polo: Marina is a graduate student with a fellowship
from the Canon National Parks Scholars Program. She is interested in
how spatial heterogeneity in soil resources affect microbial activity,
particularly seen through extracellular enzymatic activity. She is exploring
these ideas in two contrasting ecosystems: the Patgonian steppe where
patchy vegetation creates hotspots of microbial activity; and a southern
beech forest in Patagonia, where she is looking at the ways in which
coarse woody debris affects microbial diversity and activity. email:
maripolo@ifeva.edu.ar
Carla
Giordano: Carla is a post-doctoral fellow with a
CONICET fellowship. She is looking at how light quality, in particular
red:far red ratios affect seed germination and seedling growth after
a massive flowering event of the understorey bamboo in a native temperate
forest in Argentina. Increased red:far red ratios in the understorey
stimulated germination of the overstorey tree species, and the extensive
gregarious flowering of the bamboo may be providing a 'window of opportunity'
for regeneration of this native forest ecosystem. email: giordano@ifeva.edu.ar
Adriana Fernández Souto: Adriana
is pursuing her master's degree and is focusing specifically on how
aboveground diversity affects belowground soil communities. She has
been exploring how changes in the diversity of arboreal species can
affect the diversity and abundance of soil mesofauna in a native temperate
Nothofagus forest in Patagonia. email: asouto@ifeva.edu.ar
Patricia Araujo: Pato is
a new student who recently completed her undergraduate thesis in the
Patagonian steppe with Dr. Austin, where she examined the importance
of different groups of soil flora and fauna and their effects on litter
decomposition. She is interested in exploring the importance of fungi
and bacterial groups in different natural ecosystems, and the impact
of afforestation on these relationships in human-impacted ecosystems.
email: araujopa@ifeva.edu.ar