Credits: Mariana C. Chiuffo
- Currently
- Postdoctoral researcher and Lecturer, Plant Ecology Group, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
- Upcoming
- Assistant researcher, INIBIOMA (CONICET – UNCo), Bariloche, Argentina
- PhD
- Universidad de Buenos Aires, 2021
- Elsewhere
- Google Scholar · ORCID · GitHub
THE WHAT AND HOW
I'm a community ecologist studying how ecological communities assemble: who interacts with whom, why, and what happens when those relationships are disrupted. My research focuses primarily on plants and pollinators while extending to herbivores, seed dispersers, and the broader web of interactions that sustains ecological communities. I combine experiments, observational studies, large datasets, and models to address these questions.
Much of my work explores how ecological communities change through time and how historical contingencies shape their trajectories. If ecological processes are inherently context-dependent, how can our models account for the particular conditions and histories from which they emerge?
Increasingly, I find myself questioning not only what science we do, but how we do it. I aim to embrace slower, more thoughtful processes and help create greater visibility and more equitable opportunities for women and Global South communities in science.
CV
EDUCATION
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2016–2021
PhD in Agricultural SciencesUniversity of Buenos Aires, Argentina
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2010–2016
Licenciatura in Environmental ScienceUniversity of Buenos Aires, Argentina
POSITIONS
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Incoming
Assistant ResearcherCONICET
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2024–present
Postdoctoral ResearcherPlant Ecology Group, IBZ, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
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2023–2024
Medical leave
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2022–2024
CONICET Postdoctoral FellowINIBIOMA, Universidad del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina
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2016–2022
CONICET Doctoral FellowINIBIOMA, Universidad del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina
GRANTS & AWARDS
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2024
Southwood PrizeJournal of Applied Ecology
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2020
Braun Award for Excellence in EcologyEcological Society of America (ESA)
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2020
Latin American Chapter Best Talk AwardEcological Society of America (ESA)
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2019
Training and Travel AwardBritish Ecological Society (BES)
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2016
Certificate of Honor, LicenciaturaUniversity of Buenos Aires
PROJECTS
Present and future research projects
GANANCIA Y PÉRDIDA DE ESPECIES
¿Qué sucede cuando una especie entra en una comunidad o desaparece de ella? Estudio cómo responden las comunidades a la pérdida de especies—incluidas las remociones selectivas durante procesos de restauración—y a la incorporación de nuevas especies mediante invasiones de plantas, preguntándome cómo afecta cada proceso a la vegetación y a las redes planta–polinizador.
COMMUNITIES IN A WARMING WORLD
Climate warming is altering which species coexist and how plant communities are structured. Using long-term datasets, functional traits, and ecological models, I examine these shifts across environmental gradients and investigate the processes driving them (or not).
TIMING, ORDER, AND PRIORITY EFFECTS
Climate-driven shifts in flowering can change the order in which species appear and interact. I investigate how this altered timing creates priority effects, influences plant–pollinator interactions, and sets communities on different ecological trajectories.
CHANGING CALENDARS
Herbarium specimens offer a window into the past, revealing how plants responded to changing environments. I am developing a comparative project combining flowering records, plant traits, and evidence of pollination to understand climate-driven change across mountain regions. With collaborators in Argentina, Switzerland, and the United States, I hope to expand this work to other regions and ecological interactions.
Illustration: “Feeling Extra Latina Hoy” by Ana Raquel
INCLUSIVE SCIENCEOPENING PATHWAYS IN ECOLOGY
I am developing an initiative that connects women and researchers from the Global South through mentoring, peer exchange, and accessible research resources. It aims to reduce barriers to training, funding, international networks, and visibility while creating space for more diverse voices to shape ecological research.
Explore the resources so far and get in touch if you’d like to join. LowCostEcology (pilot) ↗
PUBLICATIONS
IN PREPARATION OR SUBMITTED
Climatic debts in old-growth forests: contrasting community reassembly trajectories across forest layers and elevations
Torres, A., Bektas, B., Pradhan, K., Angert, A., Hille Ris Lambers, J.
Asks whether mountain tree and understory communities are lagging behind climate change, and how elevation and traits shape that lag.
Revealing evolutionary legacies through plant-pollinator networks in a changing world
Torres, A., Aizen, M. A.
We use the cophylogenetic structure of plant-pollinator networks to trace evolutionary legacies across environmental gradients
Global change drives shifts in plant priority effects
Montenegro, V. M.*, Torres, A.
We review how global change is altering the strength of priority effects among plants.
Biological invasions erode the co-phylogenetic signal of plant-pollinator interaction networks
Torres, A., Morales, C. L., Aizen, M. A.
Examines whether biological invasions weaken the evolutionary signal embedded in plant–pollinator networks.
Echoes of invasion: persistent evolutionary and socioecological legacies following invasive plant removal
Yannelli, F., …, Torres, A., et al.
Explores the lasting evolutionary and social-ecological legacies left behind after invasive plants are removed.
Forest community lags persist under both gradual and rapid climate change in old-growth forests of Mount Rainier and the North Cascades
Bektas, B., Torres, A., Dunwiddie, P., Angert, A., Pradhan, K., Wilson, R., Walsh, M., Hille Ris Lambers, J.
Tests whether old-growth forest communities in Mount Rainier and the North Cascades are lagging behind climate change, comparing sites experiencing gradual versus rapid warming.
Ecology on a budget
Chiuffo, M. C., Torres, A., Barrios García, N., Cardoso, M., Mallerman, J., Martínez Retta, L., Moyano, J., Reyes, M. F., Tapella, M. P., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A., Nuñez, M. A.
Proposes a framework for low-cost ecological research, synthesizing methods that stay scientifically rigorous under financial constraints, to broaden who gets to participate in ecology. It will be paired with an open-access, editable platform of resources on my GitHub, built iteratively with input from the community.
2027
2026
Experimental flowering order shapes priority effects in plant-pollinator interactions
Torres, A., Chen, W.-L., Waters, S., Hille Ris Lambers, J.
Tests how the order in which flowers bloom shapes pollinator visits and plant reproductive success.
bioRxiv (Under review in Oikos)
The interacting effects of precipitation and microhabitat on nonnative seed predation are contingent on temporal dynamics
Chiuffo, M. C., Torres, A., Tammone, M. A., Núñez, M. A., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A.
How rainfall and small-scale habitat conditions jointly shape a community's resistance to invasion.
Oikos.
Elevational range shifts of trees in response to a changing climate
Hille Ris Lambers, J., Bektas, B., Torres, A., Manzanedo, R. D., Feeley, K. J.
A review of how tree species are shifting their elevational ranges as the climate changes.
(2026). Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics.
2024
The invasion ecology of mutualisms
Aizen, M. A., Torres, A.
A synthesis of how biological invasions reshape mutualistic interactions between species.
(2024). Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 55, 41–63.
Inverse priority effects: a role for historical contingencies during species loss
Torres, A., Kuebbing, S., Stuble, K., Catella, S., Núñez, M. A., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A.
Shows that the order in which species are lost from a community can shape its recovery, not just the order in which they arrive.
(2024). Ecology Letters.
2023
Inverse priority effects: the order and timing of invasive species removal influence community reassembly
Torres, A., Morán-López, T., Núñez, M. A., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A.
Field evidence that the order and timing of invasive species removal shapes how native communities reassemble.
(2023). Journal of Applied Ecology, 61(1), 51–62.
Timing of invasive species removal influences nonnative biotic resistance and trajectories of community reassembly
Torres, A., Morán-López, T., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A., Núñez, M. A.
Examines how the timing of invasive species removal affects a community's resistance to further invasion.
(2023). Journal of Ecology, 111, 2342–2356.
2022
Importance of invasion mechanisms varies with abiotic context and plant invader growth form
Chiuffo, M. C., Moyano, J., Policelli, N., Torres, A., Vitali, A., Núñez, M. A., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A.
Compares invasion mechanisms across environmental contexts and plant growth forms.
(2022). Journal of Ecology, 110(8), 1957–1969.
Do not come late to the party: initial success of nonnative species is contingent on timing of arrival of co-occurring nonnatives
Torres, A., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A., Núñez, M. A.
Shows that the establishment success of a nonnative species depends on when it arrives relative to other nonnatives.
(2022). Biological Invasions, 24(2), 557–573.
2019
Global effects of non-native tree species on multiple ecosystem services
Castro-Díez, P., Vaz, A. S., Silva, J. S., et al., Torres, A., et al.
A global review of how non-native tree species affect the ecosystem services that ecosystems provide.
(2019). Biological Reviews, 94, 1477–1501.
2018
Secondary invasions hinder the recovery of native communities after the removal of nonnative pines along a precipitation gradient in Patagonia
Torres, A., Alarcón, P. A. E., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A., Núñez, M. A.
Finds that secondary invasions can slow native community recovery after pine removal across a precipitation gradient in Patagonia.
(2018). Forests, 9, 394.
2017
Ecology and management of invasive Pinaceae around the world: progress and challenges
Núñez, M. A., Chiuffo, M. C., Torres, A., et al.
A global synthesis of progress and open challenges in managing invasive conifers.
(2017). Biological Invasions, 19(11), 3099–3120.
Still no evidence that pathogen accumulation can revert the impact of invasive plant species
Chiuffo, M. C., Policelli, N., Moyano, J., Torres, A., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A., Núñez, M. A.
A response reassessing the evidence for pathogen accumulation as a driver of invasive species decline.
(2017). Biological Invasions, 20(1), 9–10.
Pathogen accumulation cannot undo the impact of invasive species
Policelli, N., Chiuffo, M. C., Moyano, J., Torres, A., Rodríguez-Cabal, M. A., Núñez, M. A.
Argues that pathogen accumulation alone is not enough to reverse the impacts of invasive species.
(2017). Biological Invasions, 20(1), 1–4.
COLLABORATION
Line thickness reflects how many papers we’ve written together.
WHERE MY COLLABORATIONS ARE BASED
*Global South–rooted: trained in the Global South, currently based in the Global North. Regions follow Castro Torres et al. (2022, PNAS): Global North = Europe, North America, Australia & New Zealand; Global South = everywhere else.
WANT TO CONNECT?
Want to talk science, share an idea, or explore a project together? I'd love to hear from you at atorres@ethz.ch
Feel free to write in English or Spanish, whichever is easier for you.
TEACHING & MENTORING
MENTORING
I'm interested in mentoring students from the initial question through to the analysis and writing process.
CURRENT STUDENTS
- Andrina Zellweger · BA thesis: The impact of experimental flowering order on plant-pollinator interactions
- Daria Fuhrer · BA thesis: Climate-driven phenological changes and their consequences for plant community assembly
PAST STUDENTS
- Giulia Rocca · Experimental phenological shifts in plant-pollinator interactions
- Violeta Montenegro · Term paper: Priority effects in a changing world: a review
POTENTIAL THESIS TOPICS
- Working with herbarium data
- Cophylogenetic analyses and global plant–pollinator networks
- Field and experimental studies of species interactions
- Priority effects and community reassembly after species gains or losses
- Climate-driven shifts in plant–pollinator interactions
... and more. Happy to talk about ideas that don't fit neatly into a category
Thinking about a thesis project at ETH Zürich or in Argentina? Reach me at atorres@ethz.ch
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
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2026–present
Lecturer — Advanced Ecological Processes (Master’s course)ETH Zürich
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2024–2025
Teaching Assistant — Advanced Ecological Processes (Master’s course)ETH Zürich
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2025
Teaching Assistant — Seminar CourseETH Zürich
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2024
Teaching Assistant — Term Paper CourseETH Zürich
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2015–2016
Teaching Assistant — BiodiversityEcology Department, University of Buenos Aires
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2014–2015
Teaching Assistant — General EcologyEcology Department, University of Buenos Aires
PICTURES
My work in images
Here some random things
'Nature as revealed by science was a source of great, stirring pleasure'
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
Screenshot: Applied Ecologists Blog
A guest post for the Applied Ecologists Blog on my paper about how the order and timing of invasive species removal shapes the way native communities reassemble afterward.
Photo: Journal of Ecology Blog
Editor's Choice feature by the Journal of Ecology on my paper, showing that the time of year invasive species are removed in Patagonian shrublands changes which invader takes their place: removing sweetbriar rose and Scotch broom in late autumn curbs secondary invasions far more than removing them in early summer.
HOW I CAN HELP
In preparation
PEER REVIEW
Reviewing manuscripts in community ecology, plant–pollinator interactions, and global change ecology.
SCIENCE OUTREACH
Talks and workshops on pollinators, biodiversity, and community science for general or school audiences.
ILTER OSM 2027 HOST COMMITTEE
Local host committee member for the 2027 Open Science Meeting of ILTER (International Long Term Ecological Research), taking place 8–12 March in Bariloche, Argentina.
CONSULTING
· Biodiversity assessment · Data analysis, visualization and interpretation · Project design for organizations related with science or ecology