M. Susana Alvarado Barrientos
PhD candidate in Natural Resources
Susana is from Guatemala where she received her BS in Forestry Engineering (Universidad del Valle) and worked for two years in Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve (Fundación Defensores de la Naturaleza) as field coordinator of an initiative that sought to link downstream water users with upstream forest conservation through compensation for the provision of ecosystem services.
She later obtained a MS degree in Hydrology with a specialization in Ecohydrology (VU University Amsterdam) conducting her thesis on estimates of evapotranspiration rates of a heath forest near Manaus, Brasil, in the context of the LBA project investigating the Amazonian ecosystems' resilience to global climate change.
She is now a PhD candidate in the Natural Resources and Earth Systems Program (University of New Hampshire). Her dissertation focuses on evaluating the changes in plant water use associated with the conversion of pasture to pine plantations within a seasonal montane cloud forest (central Veracruz, Mexico), and assessing the effects of these changes on the site's water budget in the face of regional climate change (namely, the reduction in cloud immersion occurrence).
Alvarado-Barrientos, M.S., Hernandez-Santana, V. and Asbjornsen, H. “Variability of the radial profile of sap velocity in Pinus patula from contrasting stands within the seasonal cloud forest zone of Veracruz, Mexico”. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (in press), doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2012.08.004
Asbjornsen, H., Goldsmith, G.R., Alvarado Barrientos, M.S., Rebel, K., van Osch, F.P., Rietkerk, M.G., Chen, J., Gotsch, S., Tobón, C., Geissert, D.R., Gómez-Tagle, A., Vache, K., Dawson, T.E. (2011) Ecohydrological advances and applications in plant water relations research: a review. Journal of Plant Ecology 4:3:22.
Zanchi, F.B., PeraltaTapia, A., Waterloo, M.J., Alvarado Barrientos, M.S., Bolson, M.A., Luizão, F.J., Manzi, A.O., Dolman, A.J. "Dissolved organic and inorganic carbon export from Campina catchment in central Amazonia, Brazil" (in review).
Guerra. A. y M.S. Alvarado (2006) “De la Sierra de las Minas al Valle de San Jerónimo: Acciones locales para la gestión integrada del agua” (From the Sierra de las Minas to the San Jeronimo Valley: local actions for integrated water resources management). Serie Técnica Informe Técnico no. 343, CATIE, San José Costa Rica. 98 pp.