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Juan Ignacio Ramirez
I am a terrestrial ecologist with a research interest in consumer-resource interactions. My research aims to understand both how consumers respond to resources and how resources respond to consumers, with wild ungulates as the central part of the equation and across different biomes: Arctic, Boreal, Temperate and Tropical. Currently, I am a researcher at SLU-Umeå and I am working on a new line of research: employing “Applied Ecology of Fear” to promote human-wildlife coexistence in Sweden and other European countries. I achieve this by artificially inducing predator cues to the environment and monitoring wildlife behavioral responses with camera traps and drones. I also hold a guest researcher position at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador).
Teaching
I coordinated and taught the “Forest and Herbivory” course between 2016-2019, and was invited to give lectures for the “Advanced Forest Ecology and Management” and the “Resource Dynamics and Sustainable Uitilization” courses between 2016-2020, all courses from Wageningen University and Research (The Netherlands).
Background
I have a BSc. in Applied Ecology and a BSc. in Biology from Universidad San Francisco de Quito (2006-2010), for which I followed specialize courses in ecology at The University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia - 2009). During this time, I quantified the behavioral responses of woolly monkeys to human presence in the Amazon rainforest. I obtained my MSc. in Biology (2013-2015) and PhD in Ecology (2015-2019) from Wageningen University and Research. My research focused on understanding how wild ungulates shape the structure, composition and succession of temperate forests, including cascading effects to other trophic levels. Shortly after my PhD, I landed a short postdoc position at Wageningen University and Research and in 2020, I started a 2.5-year postdoc at Umeå University (Sweden). My research focused on the potential of large herbivores to shape the composition and diversity of Arctic ecosystems and prevent the expansion of the treeline.
Supervision
I have supervised 8 MSc. students with their thesis from Wageningen University and Research between 2017-2023, all related to herbivore-plant interactions in temperate and tropical ecosystems.
Selected publications
Ramirez, J. I., Poorter, L., Jansen, P. A., den Ouden, J., Siewert, M., & Olofsson, J. (2022). Top-down and bottom-up forces explain patch utilization by two deer species and forest recruitment. Oecologia, 1-12.
Ramirez, J. I., Jansen, P. A., den Ouden, J., Li, X., Iacobelli, P., Herdoiza, N., & Poorter, L. (2021). Temperate forests respond in a non-linear way to a population gradient of wild deer. Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research, 94(4), 502-511.
Ramirez, J. I., Zwerts, J. A., van Kuijk, M., Iacobelli, P., Li, X., Herdoiza, N., & Jansen, P. A. (2021). Density dependence of daily activity in three ungulate species. Ecology and Evolution, 11(12), 7390-7398.
Ramirez, J. I. (2021). Uncovering the different scales in deer–forest interactions. Ecology and Evolution, 11(10), 5017-5024.
Ramirez, J. I., Jansen, P. A., den Ouden, J., Moktan, L., Herdoiza, N., & Poorter, L. (2021). Above-and below-ground cascading effects of wild ungulates in temperate forests. Ecosystems, 24(1), 153-167.
Ramirez, J. I., Jansen, P. A., den Ouden, J., Goudzwaard, L., & Poorter, L. (2019). Long-term effects of wild ungulates on the structure, composition and succession of temperate forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 432, 478-488.
Ramirez, J. I., Jansen, P. A., & Poorter, L. (2018). Effects of wild ungulates on the regeneration, structure and functioning of temperate forests: A semi-quantitative review. Forest Ecology and Management, 424, 406-419.