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Jaime Luna

Jaime Luna
PhD student interested in forest biodiversity, restoration and conservation, with a special focus on entomology.

Presentation

I am a curious biologist and entomologist interested in understanding the processes that shape animal populations and investigating the effects of natural disasters (e.g., fire, pests, etc.) and anthropogenic factors on biodiversity and land use. I am currently doing my PhD at the Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre studying the biodiversity implications of short-rotation broadleaved trees. 

Research

My main research field is forest biodiversity and with my current research I aim to provide information to make more informed decisions when it comes to finding a balance between forest resource extraction and the maintenance of biodiversity.

I am interested in insect biodiversity, animal-plant interaction, and forest and wildlife management, with a special focus on saproxylic beetles and pollinators. I am also particularly curious about applying spatial data to analyse and model biodiversity data with GIS. Moreover, I have started to georeference fast-growing forest plots that are being used by different researchers in order to create, together with other colleagues of the department, a common geodatabase of these study areas.

My PhD project is framed within Trees For Me: the Centre of excellence focused on fast-growing deciduous trees for sustainable forests, materials and energy (about Trees For Me). I am investigating the potential biodiversity contribution of short-rotation broadleaf forests (e.g., poplar, hybrid aspen) by doing different experiments and studying diverse taxa such as lichens, mosses and saproxylic beetles.

Fast growing broadleaved trees can provide us with a huge amount of raw material in less time than conventional production stands while helping us to diversify the conifer-dominated Swedish landscape. It therefore has potential consequences for both biodiversity and recreational values. However, we know almost nothing about the actual biodiversity implications of these different fast growing broadleaved trees. Therefore, it is worth to do research and go deep into their potential contribution to biodiversity and gather more knowledge to successfully meet Swedish environmental goals.

Background

  • Nov 2022 - ; PhD student, Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, SLU Alnarp, Sweden
  • March 2022-Sept 2022; Research Assistant, Ecology Department, SLU Uppsala, Sweden
    • Lifeplan: A Planetary inventory of life | University of Helsinki |: characterise biological diversity through standardized semiautomated sampling, automated species recognition and Bayesian statistics (about the Lifeplan project).
  • Oct 2021; Biologist, Länsstyrelsen Norrbotten:
  • Sept 2021; Technician, Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental studies, SLU Umeå, Sweden
    •  Sorting and identification of insects & Analysis of camera trap images
  • 2019-2021; MSc in Biology, Faculty of Forestry, Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental studies, SLU Umeå, Sweden
    • Master thesis at the Restoration Ecology group: Diversity patterns and composition of wild bee communities (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in Swedish boreal forests under different management regimes. 
  • 2015-2019; BSc in Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Seville, Spain.
    • Intern student, Applied Entomology Laboratory 
    • Bachelor thesis, Marine Biology Laboratory

Selected publications

Luna-Santa-María, J., Miralles-Núñez, A., Sánchez, I., Vidal-Cordero, J.M. 2022. Nuevos registros de la hormiga exótica invasora Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) en España. Boletín de la Sociedad Andaluza de Entomología, 32: 126-132. [New records of the exotic invasive ant species Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802) (Hymenoptera:Formicidae) in Spain].