Slendy Rodríguez-Alarcón in the High Andean Forest near Guasca, Cundinamarca, Colombia.
Ivanov Pineda
Colombian biologist Slendy Rodríguez-Alarcón, traveled all the way to Estonia in order to study how specific traits of plants change when there is a disruption to the ecosystem — which might give us clues for how they’ll adapt under climate change.
Rodríguez-Alarcón, currently a PhD student on Botany and Ecology at the University of Tartu, Estonia, says she looks at species of herbaceous plants typical in European grassland ecosystems.
“Currently, I am studying the functional structure of communities, incorporating trait variation within species to evaluate the resistance to disturbances (like drought or invasion, nutrient availability) in species displaying similar traits),” she says, “This is important to understand the resilience and adaptation of plants, also to generate management and conservation strategies.”
Rodríguez-Alarcón says that for her one of the great opportunities of the project is learning new things.
“It is the first time that I have worked with European plants and with experiments in a greenhouse (with a large number of seeds and pots!),” she says, “It is also a great opportunity to suggest proposals that allow the survival of plant communities in the face of disturbances and avoid the loss of ecosystem functions, especially when it comes to disturbances that would be accentuated by climate change.”
Origins in Forests
Rodríguez-Alarcón says she has always loved fieldwork, ecosystem services and ecology, obtaining a a scholarship to study for a master’s degree in forest management, use, and conservation.
“I liked landscape ecology but fell in love with functional plant ecology,” she says, “So, I had a Eureka moment and I said to myself… What if I combine them? Would a fragmented landscape have less or more functional variability?”
Forest fragmentation is a major problem in the Colombian Andes, and her master’s thesis was to evaluate the effects of forest fragmentation on the functional diversity associated with the aboveground biomass of trees.
“It turns out that small fragments are more important than we think,” she says.
Slendy Rodríguez-Alarcón in a greenhouse at University of Tartu, setting up the first experiment of … [+]
Riin Tamme
Resourcefulness
Rodríguez-Alarcón grew up in the Colombian capital city of Bogota, surrounded by the Andes mountains.
She studied biology at the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas and had to choose between ecology and molecular genetics. She would eventually end up combining the two.
Rodríguez-Alarcón says she was then working throughout my master’s degree because although her studies were free, she had to have money for living expenses and save money to continue her project.
“Although I obtained two scholarships for financial support for the project, they were not enough, and a large part of my savings was invested in order to complete the research.”
After finishing her master’s degree, Rodríguez-Alarcón continued to work with the idea to pursue a doctorate overseas.
“I was looking for different options in different countries and actually I had to make a difficult decision: choose between USA or Estonia,” she says, “Both projects were beautiful and both supervisors are really nice and smart people, but I chose Europe and I am very happy with my PhD.”
“As a Colombian feminist from a lower-middle-class family, I know that the social gap is so great that for many people studying is a privilege,” Rodríguez-Alarcón says, “Although most developing countries are rich in biodiversity and resources, unfortunately, little budget is allocated for science and education, and that makes our scientific work a challenge.”
She says that those same environmental, social, economic, and gender equity issues provide us with a context that makes researchers from the Global South “resourceful, resilient, persevering, and realistic in devising projects, achieving goals, and proposing solutions.”
“Being a Colombian abroad I also believe that it brings a great responsibility, which is to teach another perspective of the country to improve its reputation.”
Slendy Rodríguez-Alarcón in the rainforest in Putumayo, Colombia in December, 2021.
Madis Stern
Another Latin-American researcher focused on disturbed ecosystems is biologist María Claudia Segovia Salcedo.
Segovia is not only helping to create a seed bank of Andean mountain plants, she is also planting the seeds for a more inclusive environment for women in STEM in the South American country of Ecuador.
