Postdoctoral Research Associate in Arctic Terrestrial Ecology
I am a plant ecologist who conducts research both at the macroecological scale and at local scales across the Arctic. I am interested in how tundra plants are dealing with climate change, and I work both with vascular and non-vascular plants (lichens and bryophytes). Broadly, I research species diversity and distributions, plant traits, large-scale processes of change (e.g., borealization, shrubification), and species’ potential for adaptation under increasingly warmer conditions. I have carried out Arctic fieldwork across sites in the Canadian Yukon, Svalbard and Greenland. Additionally, I have worked extensively in biodiversity conservation (e.g., at IUCN) and the science/policy interface, to which I have contributed at the Scottish and European levels (e.g., through the IPBES European regional assessment).
Projects
EU Horizon 2020 CHARTER: Drivers and Feedbacks of Changes in Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity
NERC TundraTime project
NordBorN: The Nordic Borealization Network
ITEX: International Tundra Experiment
Publications (selected)
- García Criado, M., et al. 2023. Plant traits poorly predict winner and loser shrub species in a warming tundra biome. Nature Communications 14, 3837. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39573-4
- Mekonnen, Z.A., … García Criado, M. et al. 2021. Arctic tundra shrubification: a review of mechanisms and impacts on ecosystem carbon balance. Environmental Research Letters 16(5): 053001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abf28b
- García Criado, M. et al. 2020. Woody plant encroachment intensifies under climate change across tundra and savanna biomes. Global Ecology and Biogeography 29(5): 925-943.
- Bjorkman, A.D., García Criado, M. et al. 2020. Status and trends in Arctic vegetation: evidence from experimental warming and long-term monitoring. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01161-6
- García Criado, M. et al. 2017. European Red List of Ferns and Lycopods. Brussels, Belgium: IUCN. iv + 59pp.
Website