Hola 🧉

I’m Flo, a biologist from Uruguay living in the Czech Republic. My research focuses on studying the spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity. I work mainly in the Neotropical region and specifically with mammalian carnivores. My interests fall under areas like macroecology, biodiversity informatics, open science and community science. I coordinate Biodiversidata and NaturalistaUY. I’m also into camera-trapping and recording biodiversity. Be aware that on my site, I mix Spanish and English :)


Publications

(2023). More losers than winners: investigating Anthropocene defaunation through the diversity of population trends. Biological Reviews.

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(2023). Scale mismatches between predictor and response variables in species distribution modelling - A review of practices for appropriate grain selection. Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 0(0), 1-16.

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(2022). Importance of data selection and filtering in species distribution models - A case study on the Cantabrian brown bear. Ecosphere 13(12), e4284.

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(2022). The Benefits of Contributing to the Citizen Science Platform iNaturalist as an Identifier. PLOS Biology 20(11), e3001843.

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Featured Publications

Integrating presence-only and presence-absence data to model changes in species geographic ranges: An example in the Neotropics

Anthropogenic changes such as land use and climate change affect species’ geographic ranges, causing range shifts, contractions, or expansions. However, data on range dynamics are insufficient, heterogeneous, and spatially and temporally biased in most regions. Integrated species distribution models (IDMs) offer a solution as they can complement good quality presence-absence data with opportunistically collected presence-only data, simultaneously accounting for heterogeneous sampling effort. However, these methods have seen limited use in the estimation of temporal change of geographic ranges and are not yet widespread as they have a steep learning curve. Here we present a generalisable model and case example. Using data on presence-absence and presence-only on the jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi), we modelled the species distribution at two time periods (2000–2013 and 2014–2021) using a Bayesian model based on Poisson point process in JAGS. Our model integrates the different data types while accounting for varying sampling effort and spatial effect. We predicted the species range at the two time periods and quantified their changes. Between the two time periods, the jaguarundi has contracted its southern and northern range limits towards the equator but expanded its area of distribution over the entire species’ range. Also, our results show that modelled geographic range, of either time period, is not entirely consistent with the current expert range map from IUCN. Our modelling approach provides a working example with the potential to address data gaps and biases in other taxa and regions. Given the increasing number of incidental data being generated by community-derived initiatives in Latin America, IDMs can become a valuable source for species distribution modelling in the region. This is the first application of the IDM approach with temporal dimension and over the entire species’ geographic range.

Projects

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Postdoc Project

Postdoc Project

Integrating data to detect temporal dynamics of Neotropical carnivores

NaturalistaUY

NaturalistaUY

El portal local de iNaturalist para Uruguay

PhD in Life Sciences

PhD in Life Sciences

Biodiversity informatics and macroecological patterns of biodiversity. Uruguay as a model region

JULANA

JULANA

Jugando en la Naturaleza

Biodiversidata

Biodiversidata

Consorcio de Datos de Biodiversidad del Uruguay | Uruguayan Consortium of Biodiversity Data

A Computer of One’s Own

A Computer of One’s Own

Pioneers of the Computing Age

Comparative Genomics

Comparative Genomics

Salmonella as foodborne pathogen - epidemiology, pathogenesis and prevention

Fogones de Fauna

Fogones de Fauna

Collaborative-learning experience in the protected area of Paso CenturiĂłn

Landscape Genetics

Landscape Genetics

The impact of environmental characteristics in the genetic structure of three native mammal species

Masters in Biological Sciences

Masters in Biological Sciences

Contributions of molecular ecology to the study of mammals in Uruguay

Relaciones sociedad–naturaleza en la frontera

Relaciones sociedad–naturaleza en la frontera

Espacio de FormaciĂłn Integral (EFI) en Paso CenturiĂłn, Uruguay

Blog

A mix of coding, news and personal reflextions

Tjur's R2 in JAGS

A coefficient of discrimination to assess model performance

Downloading MODIS data on R

Example using the package MODIStsp

Contact

  • grattarola[at]fzp.czu.cz
  • KamĂ˝cká 129, Prague, Suchdol 165 00