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Stefano Barchiesi
I am currently a third-year PhD student in Interdisciplinary Ecology at the University of Florida's School of Natural Resources and Environment. Prior to graduate school on this side of the Atlantic, I was in Switzerland for nearly ten years working as a project officer in the Global Water Program of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). During that time, I also served on the scientific and technical body of the Ramsar Convention which undoubtedly brought me closer to wetlands and the science needed to protect and restore these vital ecosystems. Before moving to the US, I also did some research for the European Commission on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. My education had been a Master’s program in Natural Sciences (Bologna, Italy) and one in Environmental Management and Policy (Lund, Sweden). Now, I study the effects of water level variability on vegetation and water bird populations in the Palo Verde wetlands of Costa Rica. This is with a view to also investigate how changes in the ecological integrity of this tropical coastal marsh system influence delivery of ecosystem services to different sectors of society and how these sectors can in turn help accelerate wetland restoration. |
Water Institute Graduate Fellow
The global extent of wetlands is estimated to have declined sharply.
The associated reduction in freshwater biodiversity is chiefly attributed to habitat degradation, pollution, flow regulation, water extraction, fishery over-exploitation, alien species introductions as well as climate change.
The Palo Verde National Park and Ramsar Site in Costa Rica is formally considered under threat. It is also an informative model system where restoration objectives are linked to the number of water birds harbored. Habitat suitability for several priority species is suggested to depend on water levels and vegetation density in the seasonal lagoons. However, the effectiveness of controlling invasive plants has not been studied relative to the inter-annual variability of these concurrent habitat needs. Also, the combined effects of invasive plants and water level at the landscape scale have yet to be used as dual predictors of abundance in water bird species distribution models. I'm one of five doctoral-degree students who work collaboratively as part of an interdisciplinary team of UF Water Institute Graduate Fellows (WIGF) and their faculty advisors. The focus project takes a comprehensive systems approach to analyzing the inter-basin transfer of surface water into the Tempisque River watershed that is believed to have altered the hydrology, land use, economic structure and health of the downstream Palo Verde wetlands.
The associated reduction in freshwater biodiversity is chiefly attributed to habitat degradation, pollution, flow regulation, water extraction, fishery over-exploitation, alien species introductions as well as climate change.
The Palo Verde National Park and Ramsar Site in Costa Rica is formally considered under threat. It is also an informative model system where restoration objectives are linked to the number of water birds harbored. Habitat suitability for several priority species is suggested to depend on water levels and vegetation density in the seasonal lagoons. However, the effectiveness of controlling invasive plants has not been studied relative to the inter-annual variability of these concurrent habitat needs. Also, the combined effects of invasive plants and water level at the landscape scale have yet to be used as dual predictors of abundance in water bird species distribution models. I'm one of five doctoral-degree students who work collaboratively as part of an interdisciplinary team of UF Water Institute Graduate Fellows (WIGF) and their faculty advisors. The focus project takes a comprehensive systems approach to analyzing the inter-basin transfer of surface water into the Tempisque River watershed that is believed to have altered the hydrology, land use, economic structure and health of the downstream Palo Verde wetlands.
