I have always been a person of many interests, especially within science. Although I started my academic career as an ecologist, I work on projects in a variety of subjects, including community and molecular ecology, biogeography, systematics and conservation. I find particularly intriguing the study of eco-evolutionary processes and their drivers; teasing apart the effects of different components — ecological, genetic or behavioural — the role of environmental and human factors, and the resulting geographical patterns of biodiversity.

​

​Following my need to explore multiple fields of knowledge, I completed undergraduate degrees in ecology and environmental science at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and then worked and volunteered at different institutions in Spain, Ireland and Scotland.

​

​Later, I started my Ph.D. at Lincoln University, New Zealand, on those amazing creatures called spiders. My project focused on spider ecology and diversity in native tussock grasslands of New Zealand, under the supervision of Adrian Paterson and Robert Cruickshank, and the advice of Cor Vink. I investigated how environmental factors and habitat structure affect species diversity and spatial distribution in tussock grasslands; and evaluated the effects of burning on communities in collaboration with Barbara Barratt and her team at AgResearch New Zealand.

​

Since then, I have investigated other ecological questions in collaboration with fellow researchers: habitat selection, species adaptations and interactions among tussock grassland plants (Hannah Buckley) and the study of invasion traits for both plants (Tasha Shelby) and spiders (Cor Vink), among others.​

​

During my stay in New Zealand, I got “infected” by the country's interest in biogeographical and systematic questions and I also started working in these areas. Some of my work includes phylogenetic analyses and taxonomic descriptions of spiders, the development of molecular protocols for estimating possum population sizes (in collaboration with James Ross at the CWMC), the R package SPIDER for the management and analyses of genetic data and the conservation genetics of the coxella weevil in the Chatham Islands (Emily Fountain).​​

​

Recently, I have been investigating evolutionary questions related to speciation and habitat adaptation, particularly in isolated species or populations such as those on oceanic islands or caves. My work on troglobitic Ischyropsalis species that I started while I was a visiting researcher at the University of the Basque Country is on this line.

​

I continue to explore new questions and models and I have just started working in a project on arthropod diversity patterns in the Tanzanian Eastern Arc Mountains, a biodiversity hotspot, with Nikolaj Scharff. This study is the core of my work as a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate/ Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. ​