María Trinidad Torres García

I am researcher in Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation at the Southern Swedish Forest Research Center (Alnarp) since September 2025. Previously, I have also worked as postdoctoral researcher and professor at SLU, Leuphana University Lüneburg (Germany) and the University of Almería (Spain).

I obtained my PhD in Sciences Applied to the Enviroment from the University of Almería (Spain) in 2022. Previously, I obtained a Master's degree in Sustainable Forest Management and Nature Conservation from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Bangor University (Wales, UK). 

I have developed my research lines in biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation in forest ecosystems. I aim to understand the impact of forest management on forest resilience and the provisioning of ecosystem services and biodiversity. This research will benefit decision makers and forest managers who are seeking immediate management solutions that effectively enhance forest resilience to threats like drought while addressing climate change mitigation.

Since 2018, I have been teaching in high education programmes.

At SLU, I teach in the Forest and Landscape Bachelor program. I have been involved in the following courses:

• Trees: Structure and Function
• Forest and landscape ecology
• Forest and landscape biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services

At Leuphana University Lüneburg (Germany), I have been a course leader for the course Restoration of Biodiversity in Urban Settings in the minor of Spatial Science (BSc).  I have also taught Ecological Restoration in the major of Environmental Sciences (BSc).

In Spain, I taught for the University of Almería in the Bachelor program of Environmental Sciences and the Master program of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services in the following courses:

• Botany and Vegetation
• Conservation and management of species
• Global Change and Socioecological Systems

Greta Bindernagel (BSc. 2025). A post-hoc assessment of ecosystem restoration projects: identifying social-ecological factors and patterns for success. Leuphana University Lüneburg (Germany).

Aurora Prenner (BSc. 2024). Tree-related microhabitats in mixed hemiboreal forests – Supervisor: María Trinidad Torres García. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Alnarp (Sweden). http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-s-20036

Francisco Martín Belmonte (BSc. 2021). Soil quality in Ziziphus lotus hábitat. The “fertility island” effect (La calidad del suelo en el hábitat del Ziziphus lotus. Efecto de las “islas de fertilidad”) – Supervisors: Cecilio Oyonarte, María Trinidad Torres García. University of Almería, Almería (Spain). http://hdl.handle.net/10835/13448

Please, find the full list of publications at my Google Schoolar Page. Link

Recent publications

Torres-García MT, Hedwall PO, Öckinger E, Felton AM, Lariviere D, Löf M, & Felton A. (2025). Managing production stem density and proximity near retention trees in even-aged stands: a conservation knowledge gap with insights from Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2025.2544578

Torres-García MT, Hedwall P-O, Larrieu L, Öckinger E, Johansen H, Niklasson M, et al. (2024) Tree and stand characteristics jointly predict tree-related microhabitats on retention trees in production forests. Biological Conservation, 299:110821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110821

Felton A, Seidl R, Lindenmayer DB, ... Torres-García MT, et al. (2024). The choice of path to resilience is crucial to the future of production forests. Nature Ecology and Evolution 8, 1561–1563. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02473-x