Dr. Alfredo Romero-Muñoz
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Postdoctoral researcher
alfredo.romero@geo.hu-berlin.de
Rudower Chaussee 16, Room 2'231 +49 (0)30 2093-6806 +49 (0)30 2093-6848 Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
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About me
I am a Bolivian conservation biologist interested in resolving issues that affect biodiversity, especially regarding the expansion of agriculture, and human-wildlife conflicts.
As an undergrad, I studied the impact of wild mammal trade in an urban market and its impact on some commonly traded and threatened species, especially Andean armadillo and swamp deer. I later worked with WCS in the Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park in southern Bolivia, studying population ecology and behaviour of mammals, especially wild cats. I later volunteered in the WWF’s AREAS project in the Peruvian Amazon, trying to measure the spatial requirements of jaguar and puma to define conservation areas to conserve viable populations.
From 2014 to 2015 I was a lecturer at the St. Francis Xavier University in Sucre, Bolivia, my hometown. In addition to teaching in the biology BSc, I studied with my students how urbanization gradients determine bird diversity and public attitudes towards urban nature. We have also started a UNDP-funded project trying to promote the coexistence between rural communities and puma, who often predate on their livestock, in El Palmar protected area.
I have grown more and more interested in one of the most important drivers of biodiversity loss: the impact of agriculture on biodiversity. My PhD research is, therefore, an exciting opportunity for me to contribute to the understanding the issue in a region that is highly interesting for me, the American Gran Chaco.
Curriculum Vitae
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Since 2015 |
Doctoral researcher at the Biogeography lab, Humboldt University-Berlin, Germany |
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2015 |
Project Coordinator, “Promoting coexistence between people and puma in El Palmar’. IPTK and UNDP, Bolivia |
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2014- 2015 |
Lecturer, BSc Program in biology, St. Francis Xavier University, Sucre-Bolivia |
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2013 |
Internship on Using Conservation Evidence to promote bird conservation globally. BirdLife and Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK |
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| 2012- 2013 | MPhil in Conservation Leadership, Department of geography, University of Cambridge, UK | |
| 2011- 2012 | Coordinator of Zoology, BIORENA Research Centre. St. Francis Xavier University, Bolivia | |
| 2010 | Wildlife management expert, Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN), Bolivia | |
| 2009 | Postgraduate Diploma in Wildlife Conservation, WildCRU, University of Oxford, UK | |
| 2007 | Volunteer, AREAS project, space requirements of large felids in Peruvian Amazon. WWF-Peru | |
| 2006- 2007 | Researcher, population ecology of Wildcats in the Kaa-Iya National Park, WCS, Bolivia | |
| 2001- 2006 | BSc in Biology, Saint Simon University, Cochabamba – Bolivia |
Selected Publications
Romero‐Muñoz, A., Benítez‐López, A., Zurell, D., Baumann, M., Camino, M., Decarre, J., … Kuemmerle, T. (2020): Increasing synergistic effects of habitat destruction and hunting on mammals over three decades in the Gran Chaco. Ecography, 1–13, DOI:10.1111/ecog.05053
Romero-Muñoz, A., Morato, R.G., Tortato, F. & Kuemmerle, T. (2020): Beyond fangs: beef and soybean trade drive jaguar extinction. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 18(2), 67-68, DOI:10.1002/fee.2165
Romero-Muñoz, A., Jansen, M., Nuñez, A.M., Toledo, M., Vides Almonacid, R. & Kuemmerle, T. (2019): Fires scorching Bolivia’s Chiquitano Forest. Science, 366, 1082, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz7264
Romero-Muñoz, A., A. Fernández-Llamazares, M. Moraes, D.M. Larrea-Alcázar & C.F.R. Wordley. (2019): A pivotal year for Bolivian conservation policy. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 3, 866-869, DOI:10.0.4.14/s41559-019-0893-3
Romero-Muñoz, A., Torres, R., Noss, A.J., Giordano, A.J., Quiroga, V. , Thompson, J.J., Baumann, M., Altrichter, M., McBride Jr., T., Velilla, M., Arispe, R. ,& Kuemmerle, T. (2018): Habitat loss and overhunting synergistically drive the extirpation of jaguars from the Gran Chaco, Diversity & Distributions, DOI:10.1111/ddi.12843
Kuemmerle, T., M. Altrichter, G. Baldi, M. Cabido, M. Camino, E. Cuellar, R. L. Cuellar, J. Decarre, S. Díaz, I. Gasparri, G. Gavier-Pizarro, R. Ginzburg, A. J. Giordano, H. R. Grau, E. Jobbágy, G. Leynaud, L. Macchi, M. Mastrangelo, S. D. Matteucci, A. Noss, J. Paruelo, M. Piquer-Rodríguez, A. Romero-Muñoz, A. Semper-Pascual, J. Thompson, S. Torrella, R. Torres, J. N. Volante, A. Yanosky & M. Zak (2017): Forest conservation: Remember Gran Chaco, Science, 355, 465-466, DOI:10.1126/science.aal3020
Kehoe, L., Romero-Muñoz, A., Estes, L., Kreft, H., Polaina, E., & Kuemmerle, T. (2017): Biodiversity at risk under future cropland expansion and intensification, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1, 1129–1135, DOI:10.1038/s41559-017-0234-3
Aguirre, LF and A Romero-Muñoz. 2015. Editorial: The last decade in mammalogy in Bolivia: a brief reflection. Mastozoología Neotropical (Journal of Neotropical Mammalogy). 22(1):5-10 (in Spanish)
Noss, AJ, B. Gardner, L Maffei, E Cuéllar, R Montaño, A Romero-Muñoz, R Sollman & AF O’Connell, 2012. Comparison of density estimation methods for mammal populations with camera traps in the Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco landscape. Animal Conservation 15:527–535, DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2012.00545.x
Cuéllar, RL, D Alarcón, F Peña, A Romero-Muñoz, L Maffei & A Noss. 2012. Kaaiyana, a jaguar with cubs in the Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park. Cat News, 5-7.
Romero-Muñoz, A, L Maffei, E Cuellar & AJ Noss. 2010. Temporal separation between jaguar and puma in the dry forest of southern Bolivia. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 26: 303-311, DOI: 10.1017/S0266467410000052
Romero-Muñoz, A & JC Pérez-Zubieta. 2008. Preliminary evaluation of the wild mammal trade in an urban market in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Mastozoología Neotropical (Journal of Neotropical Mammalogy), 15 (2): 253-259. (In Spanish)
Romero-Muñoz, A, AJ Noss, L Maffei & R Montaño. 2007. Binational population of jaguars confirmed by camera-trapping in the American Gran Chaco. Cat News, 46: 24-25