Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences - Biogeography

Dr. Alfredo Romero-Muñoz

 

 

Status

 

E-Mail

 

Office location

Phone

Fax

Postal address

 

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

 

Alfredo_Romero_2020

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

 

Since 2015

 

Doctoral researcher at the Biogeography lab, Humboldt University-Berlin, Germany

2015

 

Project Coordinator, “Promoting coexistence between people and puma in El Palmar’. IPTK and UNDP, Bolivia

2014- 2015

 

Lecturer, BSc Program in biology, St. Francis Xavier University, Sucre-Bolivia

2013
 

 

Internship on Using Conservation Evidence to promote bird conservation globally. BirdLife and Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

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

 

Aliaga-Rossel, E., Quiroga, C. J., Velez-Liendo, X., Romero-Muñoz, A., Porcel, Z., Wallace, R. B., Ayala, G. M., Viscarra, M. E., Cuéllar Soto, E., Tarifa, T., & Noss, A. (2021). Distribution, ecology, and conservation of Xenarthra in Bolivia — update to 2021. Edentata22(22), 16–37.

 

Gibbons, D. W., Sandbrook, C., Sutherland, W. J., Akter, R., Bradbury, R., Broad, S., Clements, A., Crick, H. Q. P., Elliott, J., Gyeltshen, N., Heath, M., Hughes, J., Jenkins, R. K. B., Jones, A. H., Lama, R. L., Macfarlane, N. B. W., Maunder, M., Prasad, R., Romero‐Muñoz, A., ... Ockendon, N. (2021). The relative importance of COVID‐19 pandemic impacts on biodiversity conservation globally. Conservation BiologyMay, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13781

 

Thompson, J., Velilla, M., Morato, R.G., de Angelo, C.D., Paviolo, A.J., Quiroga, V.A., Perovic, P.G., Tortato, F., Mirol, P.M., Romero Muñoz, A. and Maffei, L., 2021. Developing transboundary monitoring of the jaguar in southern South America. Cat News, 72, 11-16.

 

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