Mountains
The environmental gradients found in mountain ecosystems are key drivers of global biodiversity. My research, particularly on Cofre de Perote (Mexico), focuses on understanding the plant diversity of these unique landscapes.
High-altitude plant ecology. I usually work in high-altitude plant communities such as pine-oak forests, fir forests and alpine vegetation (+ 3,000 masl). There, I try to answer questions like: Why do plants grow where they do? How does plant diversity, species composition and reproductive phenology change across environmental gradients?
Botanical explorations on the Cofre de Perote Mountain. From Humboldt to the present, Cofre de Perote has attracted explorers and botanists. My research seeks to answer: Who has explored and described the vegetation of the Cofre de Perote Mt.? Which native plants are distinctive to this area? Which are well represented in botanical collections? I've also been part of continuous expeditions to this mountain in search of unknown populations of narrow endemic, endangered or not described species.
Now, with Humboldtian eyes, scroll down and journey through the vegetation belts of Cofre de Perote—from alpine landscapes at 4,200 masl to the Gulf of Mexico coast.
“Nowhere can you better see the admirable order with which the different types of vegetation follow each other, one above the other, than traveling from the coast of Veracruz towards the Plateau of Perote”
Heliocarpus appendiculatus (Malvaceae) seeds
Secondary cloud forest
1,200 - 2,100 masl