Feedback

eubon@mfn-berlin.de

NEWSLETTER

University of Granada

https://www.ugr.es/en/

 

WHO WE ARE

The University of Granada is one of Spain’s top universities, and is also a major actor in the area of higher education both in Europe and Latin America. It was founded in 1531 to establish a Christian university to follow in the stead of the, until then, Islamic Madrassa, dating from 1349. Since then, the UGR – drawing on its historical roots – has gradually grown and developed into what it has become today: a public higher-education institution that is committed to quality and excellence in the areas of teaching, learning and research. In line with this, the university has, throughout its history, become increasingly active in the transfer of scientific, social advancement, sustainable development and, above all, internationalization. The study programmes available at the UGR are among the most extensive in Europe, which helps to explain our high student numbers: around 65,000, of which some 10,000 are international students. The UGR is involved in a wide range of international projects and networks, as well as internationally-renowned exchange programmes.

Numerous national and international ranking agencies that evaluate higher education teaching and research have placed the UGR among the top universities in Spain, as well as including it within the top 3% of the best higher education institutions worldwide. Indeed, according to the Shanghai ranking, the UGR appears as one of the world’s top 500 universities.

The Terrestrial Ecology Research Group was established in 1995 within the Research and Technological Development Groups of the Regional Government of Andalusia (Spain), in the Natural Resources and Environmental Programme. The main objectives of the group are:

1) To broaden knowledge of key ecological processes in Mediterranean ecosystems.

2) To develop conceptual tools and methodologies to improve the conservation and management of natural resources.

3) To promote the transfer of research results to the management of protected areas, disseminating this information through training and advisory activities.

This research group is currently included at the Interuniversity Institute for Earth System Research in Andalusia. We are focused in global change monitoring and forecasting, ecoinformatics and adaptive environmental management. Our team is composed by people from different science topics: ecologists, biologists, computer scientists, forest engineers, etc. 

WHAT OUR EXPERIENCE IS

We have a wide research experience related with the collecting and management biodiversity data in order to transform it into useful knowledge for the managers to carry out an active and adaptive management of natural resources. We coordinates the Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory that become a LTER site in 2008. We have wide experience in the design and implementation of environmental information systems. The local information system created for the Sierra Nevada LTER site (called linaria) has been also implemented in LBA (Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment) in Brazil. We have been involved in several EU projects and research infrastructures: EnvEurope, MS-MONINA (as testing site), LifeWatch, eLTER, ECOPOTENTIAL. Finally we are currently leading the Spanish LTER network.

WHAT WE DO IN EU BON

Our main interest in participating in EU BON is related to the transfer of the expertise that we have gathered when implementing our local LTER site. It will be very interesting for us to integrate our project within global initiatives such as EU BON.

IN EU BON WE MAINLY CONTRIBUTE TO

UGR will be involved in task 2.5 (European Biodiversity Portal), led by CSIC-EBD. UGR will take on an advisory role in the design and establishment of the EU BON portal, especially in view of workability and practicality of search options/functionalities, and some further practical aspects of portal design. UGR will be also involved in task 5.1 lead by CSIC-EBD. Our expertise would be useful to assist data mobilization and integration from EU BON sites into the portal. Finally, UGR will participate in task 5.2 (Testing EU BON tools for data analysis and interpretation), led by Seckenberg. Regarding this task, UGR will be involved in testing data analysis and interpretation tools.

 

 

Dr. Regino J. Zamora Rodríguez

  • He is professor of ecology at the University of Granada. He is one of the most cited Spanish ecologists (more than 3800 since 2010). He has been involved in more than 150 SCI papers. Regino leaded the creation of the Sierra Nevada LTER site, acting as scientific coordinator. He is also involved in Mediterranean plant ecology and plant-animal interactions, fostering knowledge transfer from science to environmental decision process. Regino is the PI of the terrestrial ecology research group.
  • Research interests: Plant-animal interactions. Plant-plant interactions.  Global Change Ecology. Ecology of forest regeneration in Mediterranean environments. Restoration Ecology. Ecology and biodiversity of Mediterranean Ecosystems. 

Dr. Francisco J. Bonet-García

  • He holds a PhD in Sciences from the University of Granada. From 1998 to 2006 he worked for the Andalusian environmental information system. His expertise is related to database management, information systems and decision support systems. Since 2006 he works as an ecologist at the University of Granada. He was involved in LTER Spain since 2008 and co-leaded the creation of Sierra Nevada LTER site. He has been involved in several EU projects: EnvEurope, EU BON (testing site). He is currently sharing the coordination of LTER Spain
  • Research interests: GIS expert with extensive experience in managing databases and development of GIS data models related to the conservation of biodiversity. Experience in spatial environmental modeling, multicriteria evaluation techniques applied to management of natural resources and design of information systems.

 

Dr. Ramón Pérez-Pérez

He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Granada in 2006.

  • Computer scientist with wide experience in analysis, design and implementation of environmental information systems and decision support systems. He has been involved in the creation of an information system for the Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory (LTER site). He has also developed a Wireless Sensor Network for Sierra Nevada that also includes a new sensor mote called Ardusense (www.ardusense.com). He has designed and implemented modular Information System for the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) to manage data from meteo/flux towers in the Amazon basin. He has also expertise in data mining, Multiagent systems, ontologies and mobile application development.
  • He is involved in Lifewatch and LTER as data analyst and computer scientist. Within LifeWatch he has developed a Semantic tool  (http://www.obsnev.es/ontologia) that combines remote information datasets (MODIS) with ontologies and knowledge base to monitor habitats. His LTER activities are related with the integration of the information created by the Spanish sites: documenting data, harmonization of datasets, etc. Regarding this issue he works collaboratively with US-LTER network and LTER Europe. 

Research interests:

  • Environmental Decision Support System and Information System.
  • Semantic Web and Big Data.
  • Data standards.
  • Scientific workflow systems

Dr. Antonio J. Pérez

  • He is biologist and Master in Applied Statistics. He also is a PhD candiate in University of Granada. The focus of his dissertation is the spatio-temporal dynamics of Pyrenean Oak forest in Mediterranean mountains.
  • He works as ecologist in University of Granada, involved in the Sierra Nevada LTER site. He has co-developed the information system of Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory. He has expertise on analysis of ecological data with R and programming tools. High experience in use of R, GIS and reproducible science tools.
  • He acquired high ecoinformatics skills during his research stay at US-LTER Network Office (University of New Mexico) and at National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS, Univ. of California).
  • Previously, he worked as ecologist consultant for four years, focusing on restoration projects and ecology of threatened species.

His research interests include:

  • ·Spatio-temporal dynamics of forests in Mediterranean Mountains.
  • Global Change ecology.
  • Data Analysis and Ecoinformatics. 
  • Design of Environmental Information Systems.
  • Metadata
  • Remote Sensing

 


Members area

Lost your password?

news NEWS

   26 SEP 2018
EU BON research keeps flowing: Downscaling and the automation of species monitoring


Biodiversity data are sparse, biased and collected at many resolutions. So techniques are needed ...

   25 APR 2018
Stemming from EU BON, new research calls for action: Overcoming the barriers to the use of conservation science in policy


Just accepted, a new paper in Conservation Letters looks at the barriers and solutions to the use...

   8 MAR 2018
New EU BON research reviews the most relevant sources for European biodiversity observation data to identifying important barriers and fill gaps


Recently published in Biological Conservation, the new EU BON supported paper is titled "Unl...

ALL NEWS


calendar CALENDAR

flag big This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 308454.