Teresa E. Gimeno

My research focuses on the impacts of global change drivers on forest ecosystems, with particular emphasis on ecosystem water use efficiency during carbon uptake. I have participated in several projects investigating the impacts of climate change, increased CO2 and changes in habitat use on different ecosystem components. I took my early steps in science during my MSc thesis where I studied how Holm oak seedlings adapted to drought and cold in Mediterranean ecosystems and ultimately fuelled my passion for plant ecophysiology. Then, I went on to conduct my PhD at the Spanish Scientific Council at the Institute of Natural Resources (today part of the MNCN-CSIC) in Madrid, Spain with Fernando Valladares and Adrián Escudero. During my PhD, I studied the impact of land use and climate change on the Mediterranean-continental forest, a poorly understood biome. I complemented my PhD training with a stays at the Australian National University (Canberra, Australia), the Université du Québec in Montréal (Canada) and at INRA-Nancy (France). After my PhD, I did a short postdoc at the University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), as part of an EU-funded project on the effects of forest tree diversity on ecosystem services (FunDivEurope). Then, I decided to move abroad to Australia to the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment based at the Western Sydney University with Professors David Ellsworth and David Tissue. There, I addressed the impact of rising CO2 on the hydrological balance of a native Eucalyptus woodland. This was a wonderful and scientifically enriching experience where I learnt about large-scale FACE (Free-Air CO2 Enrichment) experimentation (the EucFACE experiment). Not only that, I also expanded my research interests into soil biology and ecosystem modelling. Once I finished my research adventure in Australia, I returned to Europe after obtaining a postdoctoral fellowship of the Université de Bordeaux and a Marie Curie individual fellowship. In December 2014, I joined the laboratory led by Lisa Wingate and Jérôme Ogée. I was part of the EcoFun research team, based at INRA Bordeaux-Aquitaine until March 2018, although I keep a strong link to INRA as a regular research collaborator. During my research stage at INRA, I focused on the underlying mechanisms of stomatal regulation at night applying novel tracing techniques. In May 2018, I joined the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), in the Spanish Basque Country, as an Ikerbasque research fellow. From now on, I will focus on quantifying the contribution of terrestrial vegetation carbon and water fluxes to mitigate anthropogenic climate change.