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Carlos Portillo-Quintero
Ph.D. Graduate Earth Observation Systems Laboratory (EOSL) Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E3 Email: portillo@ualberta.caResearch Interests
In 2003, I began conducting research as an assistant student at the GIS Facility (EcoSIG) of the Center of Ecology at the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC) under the supervision of Dr. Jon Paul Rodriguez (IVIC) and Dr. Miguel Pietrangeli (La Universidad del Zulia) measuring deforestation rates on the Tropical Dry Forests of North-Western Venezuela using remote sensing. I obtained a BSc. degree in Biology at La Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela in 2004. Then, I conducted work as a GIS Analyst in the “Threatened Habitats Project” for the Conservation NGO PROVITA in Caracas where we quantified land cover dynamics of the terrestrial ecosystems of North-Central Venezuela.
As a graduate student within the Tropi-Dry Research Network and under the supervision of Dr. Arturo Sanchez, my main work focuses in the assessment of the Tropical Dry Forest extent and spatial configuration across the Americas using coarse-resolution satellite imagery. Current study/research program also includes the theoretical and practical approaches to derive spatially explicit maps of ecosystem productivity, complexity and degradation indicators using a combination of ground-based & remote optical sensors.
Study/Research Interests: I am interested in studying the spatial-temporal dimensions of ecosystem integrity and functionality, Land-use/Land cover dynamics, and the ecological and social interactions in the human/tropical forest frontier. I also support governmental awareness, capacity-building and development of human resources for biological conservation in threatened tropical eco-regions, especially within the highly threatened Venezuelan Tropical Andean ecosystems.
Selected Publications
- Fajardo, L., V. González, J. M. Nassar, P. Lacabana, C. A. Portillo, F.
Carrasquel and J. P. Rodríguez (2005) Tropical Dry Forests of Venezuela: characterization and current conservation status. Biotropica 37: 531-546.
