Adrian Villalobos

New scenarios in a changing world require the development of new techniques and approaches to better manage and control our forests worldwide. Knowledge of knowledge through ecological interactions and ecosystem functions will provide us with significant information for the development of such new approaches, which are very important to society. Therefore, my main goal is to help bring together new methods for better forest management and restoration.

In southern Sweden, direct seeding of nut-producing tree species has a great potential to reduce the costs of forest restoration projects. However, previous studies identified seed predation by granivorous rodents as a major problem upon direct sowing. Therefore, the aim of my project is to find how rodents could be deterred during foraging by volatile odorant molecules from their predators and how these predator cues could be used as repellents. This project will increase our knowledge in predator and prey interaction dynamics. The identification of such volatiles will reduce the costs of restoration programs which could also be motivation for more land owners to restore broadleaved forest to its original state using close to nature silviculture.

In addition to my current project in southern Sweden I have also done research in countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, Germany and the Philippines.

I participate in lecturing the Master level course: Broadleaves - ecology, conservation and silviculture. 2016-2020

Master of Science: M.Sc. Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology - Tropical and International Forestry, 2015, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.

Bachelor of Science: B.Sc. Tropical Biology, 2010, Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Heredia, Costa Rica.

Villalobos, A., Schlyter, F., Olsson, G., Witzell, J., & Löf, M. (2020). Direct seeding for restoration of mixed oak forests: Influence of distance to forest edge, predator-derived repellent and acorn size on seed removal by granivorous rodents. Forest Ecology and Management, 477, 118484.ONLINE

Löf, M., Castro, J., Engman, M., Leverkus, A.B., Madsen, P., Reque, J.A., Villalobos, A. and Gardiner, E.S., 2019. Tamm Review: Direct seeding to restore oak (Quercus spp .) forests and woodlands. Forest Ecology and Management, 448, pp.474-489. ON-LINE

Villalobos, A., Olsson, G., Birkedal, M., & Löf, M. (2018). The effects of four repellents on bank full consumption and germination of beech nuts and acorns. New Forests, 1-14. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11056-018-9660-6

Villalobos A, Schlyter F, Birgersson G, Olsson G, Witzell J, Löf M. (2018). Deter to protect: use of predator's odor to deter granivorous rodents from consuming acorns. 6th International Conference of Rodents Biology and Management & 16th Rodens et Spatium, 2018, Potsdam. DOI: 10.5073 / jka.2018.459.000

Villalobos A, Schlyter F, Birgersson G, Olsson G, Witzell J, Löf M. (2017). Seed protection through predator's smell: Developing novel repellents to avoid granivorous rodents. 3rd Conference Restoring Forests: Regeneration and Ecosystem Function for the Future. Lund, Sweden