Former Lab Members

Former Graduate Students

  • Courtney Currier
    • Current whereabouts: Postdoctoral program at Cambridge University, UK
  • Bryce Sutter
    • Current whereabouts: Lab Manager for the Sala Lab at Arizona State University, Tempe
  • Laureano Gherardi
    • Current whereabouts: University of California, Berkeley
  • Svenja Wagner
    • Current whereabouts: Instructor, School of Sustainability, College of Global Futures at Arizona State University.
  • Amy Wiedenfeld
    • Current whereabouts: PhD student, University of Lethbridge, Nature Conservancy Canada
  • Owen McKenna
    • Current whereabouts: Research Ecologist at Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in Jamestown, ND
  • Lara Reichmann
    • Current whereabouts: Lab Manager, Norman Terry Lab, Berkeley University, California
  • Pedro Flombaum
    • Current whereabouts: Research Scientist, National Research Council, and University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  • Marselle Alexander-Ozinskas
    • Current whereabouts: Program Officer, Effective Philanthropy Group, Hewlett Foundation
  • Victoria Marchesini
    • Current whereabouts: CONICET Associate Researcher, San Luis, Argentina
  • Laura Yahdjian
    • Current whereabouts: Investigator, Agricultural Physiology and Ecology Research Institute (IFEVA)
  • Verónica Pancotto
    • Current whereabouts: Research Scientist, National Research Council, Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego (Argentina)
  • Pablo Roset
    • Current whereabouts: Private consultant, Argentina
  • Esteban Jobbágy
    • Current whereabouts: Research Scientist, National Research Council, and University of San Luis (Argentina)
  • Adriana Beltrán
    • Current whereabouts: Geostatistician at John Deere, Fort Collins, CO, USA
  • José M. Paruelo
    • Current whereabouts: Professor, University of Buenos Aires and Research Scientist, National Research Council, Argentina.
  • Martín R. Aguiar
    • Current whereabouts: Professor, University of Buenos Aires and Research Scientist, National Research Council, Argentina
  • Rodolfo A. Golluscio
    • Current whereabouts: Dean and Professor, School of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires and Research Scientist, National Research Council, Argentina

Former Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Laureano Gherardi
    • Current whereabouts: University of California, Berkeley
  • Monica Ladron de Guevara
    • Current whereabouts: Researcher at El Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
  • Jose Daniel Anadon
    • Current whereabouts: Instructor, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Alicante, Spain
  • Laura Reichmann
    • Current whereabouts: Lab Manager, Norman Terry Lab, Berkeley University, California
  • Erika Sudderth
    • Current whereabouts: Data Scientist at U.S. DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
  • Laura Yahdjian
    • Current whereabouts: Investigator, Agricultural Physiology and Ecology Research Institute (IFEVA)
  • Amy T. Austin
    • Current whereabouts: Research Scientist, National Research Council, and University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  • Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald
    • Current whereabouts: Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering and Natural Resource Management, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, San Luis Potosí, Mexico
  • Patricia Folgarait
    • Current whereabouts: Ants Lab, Dept of Science and Technology, CONICET, Quilmes National University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Silvia Cid
    • Current whereabouts: Professor, Universidad de Mar del Plata, Balcarce, Argentina
  • Miguel A. Brizuela
    • Current whereabouts: Professor, Universidad de Mar del Plata, Balcarce, Argentina

Former Visiting Scientists

Susana Silvestre Carbonell

Degree in Biology by the University of Alicante (2017) and Master in Management and Restoration of the Natural Environment also by the University of Alicante (2018). In 2020 I started my PhD under the supervision of CREAF researchers Josep Peñuelas, Romà Ogaya and Marcos Fernández Martínez. I study the effects of a long-term experimental drought on the physiology of Mediterranean vegetation in order to learn how Mediterranean forests will respond to a lack of water due to climate change.

Laura Yahdjian

Laura Yahdjian was a visiting scholar at ASU in the Osvaldo Sala’s lab. She is a research Scientist in the Institute for Agricultural Plant Physiology and Ecology (IFEVA-CONICET) and an Assistant Professor of the department of Ecology in the School of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her broad scale research interests are in the area of terrestrial ecosystem ecology, with a focus on ecosystem-level questions including controls of primary production, ecosystem-water dynamics, and the effects of exotic plant invasions on ecosystem functioning. Her field sites cover a range of natural and human modified ecosystems in the Patagonia and Pampas region of Argentina, where she is studying ecosystem changes after agriculture abandonment and the impacts of agricultural practices on green house gases emissions. Laura is involved in two international global research networks (NutNet and DroughtNet). At ASU, Laura was engaged in the research of drought effects on ecosystem functioning.

Fujiang Huo

Dr. Fujiang Hou is Dean of College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology (CPAST), Lanzhou University, Director of Gansu Grassland Ecological Research Institute (GGERI), vice Director of State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLGAE). His research has been focused on the vegetation and livestock productivity, greenhouse gases emission and mitigation, economic and social analysis of rangeland grazing systems in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Loess Plateau, Inland Arid Region of northwest China and Inner Mongolian Plateau. He has been involved in over 20 funded projects, which include 9 international projects. The results have been published in 149 peer-reviewed scientific journals (including 125 Chinese journals). Fujiang was a visiting scientist with the Sala Lab from November 2015 until February 2016.

Marc Estiarte

Marc Estiarte was a visiting scientist in the Sala Lab during February 2016. Marc Estiarte has been studying the effects of water availability in the context of climate change on ecosystem processes of the carbon cycle, such as plant productivity and soil respiration, using precipitation-reduction experiments in the field in a mediterranean shrubland. He has also studied effects of drought on the phenology of growth, flowering and leaf senescence as well as in plant water relations. He visited Sala’s Lab to deepen on the comprehension of the significance of timescales of water availability on ecosystem productivity.

Jianhua Si

Jianhua Si was a visiting scientist in the Sala Lab from June 2013 to June 2014. He came from the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests focus on water use strategies in desert riparian forest, and the study area is located in the lower reaches of Heihe River Basin. In order to achieve his goals, he looked at the following four aspects that closely interact with each other: (1) Water source of desert riparian forest, (2) Hydraulic redistribution and eco-hydrological effects, (3) Transpiration of desert riparian forest and scaling up, and (4) Responses of ecological process to hydrological process in a desert riparian forest. At ASU, he engaged in the research of water dynamics in arid ecosystems.

Pratap Naikwade

Dr. Pratap Naikwade joined the Sala Lab in Aug 2016 by availing the prestigious C.V. Raman Fellowship for post-doctoral research at USA funded by UGC (Govt. of India initiative). He has completed his Bachelor and Master degree in Botany from Dr. B.A.M. University, Aurangabad, India. He was rewarded with Ph.D. for the research on ‘Some biotechnological aspects of food preservation and nutrient resources of crop plants’. He is working on different aspects of Sustainable Agriculture, Weed Utilization, Waste Management, Carbon Sequestration etc. He carried out awareness program on Conservation of sacred groves in Western ghat of Sahyadri ranges in India. He has guided four students from France in forest conservation project. He is working with Srushtidnyan (Mumbai based NGO) and Klimet Aktion (Stockholm, Sweden based NGO) for creating awareness on climate change among school children and local people in Ratnagiri, India. At ASU Dr. Pratap is interested in learning more about impact of climate change on different ecosystems, plant wood encroachment and its effect on livestock production.

Former Staff

Stephen Doucette-Riise

Stephen joined the Sala Lab in 2019 as the lab manager. Stephen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and raised in Florida. He attended the University of Florida and in 2008 received a B.S. degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. During his time with UF he volunteered at the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Department of Herpetology and interned with the US Forest Service studying the effects of fire management regimes on herpetofauna populations. In 2009 he began his M.S. in Zoology at the University of Cape Town studying anthropogenic impacts of migration and dispersal patterns of the endangered Western Leopard Toad. After completing his masters he worked as a project manager for Utah State University studying ecohydrology in Kruger National Park South Africa. Stephen’s main research interests lies with landscape level impacts of human disturbance and climate change patterns. He is also deeply interested in outdoors exploration and an avid scuba diver and surfer.

Kay Vasley

Kay joined the Sala Lab in 2017 as a Program Manager for the Global Drylands Center.

Maritza Sandoval Aguilar

Maritza started volunteer work in the Sala Lab in the spring of 2017. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Engineering in 2013 and obtained her M.S. in Natural Resources in 2016 from the Instituto Tecnologico de Sonora in Mexico. She is interested in evaluating the carbon cycle under different ecosystem pressures and the factors that control it under the context of climate change. This is why she worked with carbon soil pools and fluxes (i.e. soil respiration, organic matter and carbon and nitrogen percent), microbial activity, and decomposition processes in sites of ecological succession in a Tropical Dry Forest (Sierra de Alamos). She wants to learn different techniques to evaluate the ecosystem response to climate change in dry ecosystems. Because of this, she is technically supporting different projects in the Sala lab.