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My research asks how plant interactions shape vegetation structure, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. I approach this question across scales, from belowground competition among neighboring individuals to the organization of plant communities and landscapes. A central goal of my work is to connect fundamental ecological mechanisms with applied challenges in agriculture, conservation, and ecosystem management.
Root competition and game theory
Root competition and game theory
A major part of my work has focused on how plants respond to neighbours belowground. Using game-theoretic models and experiments, I have studied how plants adjust root proliferation in response to the competitive behavior of neighboring individuals. This work contributes to understanding plant competition not simply as a struggle for resources, but as a strategic process that can shape individual performance and evolutionary stable strategies.
Plant interactions and community structure
Plant interactions and community structure
I am interested in how local interactions among plants scale up to influence community-level patterns, including coexistence, niche segregation, spatial organization, and vegetation structure. This line of research links individual-level mechanisms, such as root foraging and facilitation, with broader ecological outcomes such as species diversity, pattern formation, and ecosystem resilience.
Agroecology and sustainable food security
Agroecology and sustainable food security
I currently work in the European project COUSIN, where I apply concepts from root competition and belowground niche segregation to agroecology. My work focuses on identifying root traits in Aegilops biuncialis, a wild relative of wheat, that may improve productivity and complementarity in wheat variety mixtures. By combining root phenotyping, rhizotron experiments, and ecological theory, this project explores how ecological knowledge from wild species can inform more diverse and resilient cropping systems.
Vegetation structure and conservation
Vegetation structure and conservation
More recently, I have become interested in Mediterranean open woodlands as systems where plant interactions, herbivory, fire, and historical land use intersect. In particular, I am developing a research line on open Spanish oak landscapes in the Central Gredos Range, exploring whether some of these systems may represent relict ecosystem configurations rather than simply degraded forests. This work aims to connect ecological theory, natural history, palaeoecological perspectives, and conservation management. Learn more about the project at Northgrippian Park.
Developing new methods to study roots
Because roots are difficult to observe under natural conditions, part of my work has focused on developing methods to study belowground processes in the field and in controlled experiments. These include artificially rooted pots, which allow experimental simulation of resource depletion (in preparation), and field protocols to identify roots belonging to individual plants in mixed soil samples. In Cabal et al. (2022), Comparing two field protocols to measure individual shrubs’ root density distribution (doi), we presented a method based on dye injections before extracting large soil cores with a drilling machine, making it possible to identify individuals' roots and reconstruct their spatial distribution (see video below). Together, these approaches aim to make root ecology more quantitative and experimentally tractable.
I am committed to a slow-science approach to ecology.
I value research that is conceptually grounded, carefully developed, and closely connected to natural history and empirical evidence. Rather than orienting my work around short-term metrics or rapid publication cycles, I aim to develop questions, methods, and collaborations that have lasting intellectual value. I enjoy working with others when collaborations emerge from shared curiosity, trust, and complementary expertise, and I see scientific quality as inseparable from time, care, and depth.
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