Mi visión de mi programa de investigación es mejorar la sustentabilidad de los paisajes a través de la protección, restauración y manejo sustentable de las riberas a lo largo de las cuencas.

I am a Forest Engineer (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), with a Master in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development and a PhD. in Forestry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am currently a Postdoctoral researcher at San Diego State University, in California (USA).
My interest is to advance understanding of and promote solutions for environmental problems using scientific methods. I seek to find ways to balance human demands for natural resources with the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. By combining a variety of tools, such as ArcMap, R, Fragstat and Guidos, with theoretical frameworks from landscape ecology, forest ecology and land use planning in spatial analysis, my research and professional career focuses on issues of conservation of biodiversity and sustainability across human-dominated landscapes (e.g. farmlands). I have a special interest in understanding land use processes associated with riparian biodiversity. This application, if successfully awarded, will allow me to advance my long-term research program. Particularly, this proposal will help me gain new skills to develop rigorous assessment of the effect of social and ecological drivers on land use processes within riparian zones in farmlands, across multiple spatial scales.
My training in broad-scale assessment of land use and scenario modeling to develop scientific knowledge has great potential to inform plans to create sustainable landscapes at various decision-making levels. In a recent publication (Rojas et al., 2020), I showed that restoration along riparian ecosystem could greatly improve habitat connectivity for forest fauna in Chile, according with existing forest regulation. Results from my research, using all 99 large watersheds of Chile, can guide both nationwide and local restoration programs aiming to improve ecosystem services.
Throughout my career, I have developed an extensive experience collecting field data for plants and birds in a diverse set of ecosystems such as chaparrals, forests and wetlands, in the Midwest of USA and Chile. Many of these experiences led to new scientific understanding of the association between productive activities and biodiversity, proposing opportunities for more sustainable practices in productive systems (e.g., Ibarra et al., 2017). Other monitoring experiences were targeted to quantify the effect of restoration techniques to control plant invasion in wetlands (Healy et al., 2015).
Moreover, I developed skills to design biodiversity surveys using a landscape ecology lens, and to analyze these field-based data using different statistical approaches. For instance, for my masters’ research, I used linear mixed-effect models to explore the effect of an invasive plant on native plant diversity in an urban wetland. I found that the negative effect of plant invasion on native plants persisted across multiple spatial scales (Rojas and Zedler 2015). I have also applied sophisticated statistical approaches, such as density models, that incorporates a hierarchical structure. I used this approach to study the abundance of birds accounting for imperfect detection (Rojas 2019 see dissertation summary). I am currently developing new analytical skills to understand key concepts of climate science (Postdoc position since July 2019). To do this, I am advancing my computational skills to handle and analyze time series data to develop measures of climate change exposure. These new skills are essential to tackle the prioritization analysis I am proposing in this application.
Throughout my career, I have developed a strong interest in promoting sustainable agriculture. For instance, as a consultant for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Chile, I developed a program to promote sustainable small-scale family farming in Navidad, Chile. We assessed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, using both open-ended interviews and participatory activities, to identify strategies to promote resilience after catastrophic events. This previous experience working in close collaboration with farmers will contribute to the assessment of farmers’ social characteristics in my proposal.
During my career, I have developed capacities to work in close collaboration with colleagues from a diversity of disciplines. For instance, in my current position, I have been able to work with a multi-disciplinary team of climatologist, geographers, hydrologists and urban planners. In particular, I have been leading the development of a conceptual framework to assess landscape exposure to multiple drivers of global change simultaneously, including climate warming, changes in fire and water regimes, and intensity of recreational activities. We aim in advancing our scientific understanding regarding the spatial variation of multiple drivers that can cause landscape degradation (e.g., biodiversity loss, farmland degradation).
Finally, to meet my research goals and objectives, I have successfully applied to National fellowships (Becas Chile 2009, 2013) to fund my graduate training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (master and PhD program). I have also been successfully awarded with International funding sources (e.g., Wilson Ornithological Society) to support my graduate program and fieldwork. This funding was useful to develop my research and to train field assistants on biodiversity survey and mentoring them to help them advance in their professional careers.

I have previous experience developing outreach/extension material to communicate scientific knowledge and conservation needs to stakeholders in rural and urban settings. As a product of my work as consultant for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Chile, we developed an outreach material that inform sustainable farming practices that can secure access to food while reducing the negative effects of agriculture on biodiversity (See brochure Navidad).
In another experience, as part of my master’s degree (Rojas and Zedler 2015), I coordinated a citizen science program to assess the role of wetlands on cleaning urban runoff. We found that wetlands can clear runoff water, but high levels of nutrient in runoff promote exotic plant invasion. As a product of this experience, I developed a brochure about strategies that neighbors could implement to reduce contaminant in runoffs to halt plant invasion and sustain native plant communities (See Brochure Wetlands).
Finally, and based on my experience presented above, I want to build an outreach and extension program that aim to create bridges between academia and our society. If funded, we plan to organize an international seminar to identify key knowledge gaps in the science and practice of sustainable farming to implement climate-smart strategies. To do this, we will gather with international collaborators, representatives from national agencies, farmers and a diversity of stakeholders associated with the management of farmlands. This experience will help to build-up a community of practices that can inform policy and facilitate the development of appropriate strategies that aim to protect and restore farmlands sustainability and promote adaptation and mitigation across the broader landscape.