DANIELA YAFFAR
Enjoy My Site
As a skilled and experienced professional in my field, I know how much hard work and careful thought it takes to succeed. My CV site is my way of documenting everything I’ve done, everything I’ve learned and how I see myself developing in the future. If you’d like to learn more about me, browse through the site. If you see something you like, or you want to discuss what I can do for you, feel free to drop me a line.
Professional History
The following is a list of my experiences as a professional in my field. Here you will find a showcase of each of these roles. They were all unique and contributed to both my personal and professional development. In addition to these positions, I’ve also launched a few endeavors of my own, which you can read about below. If you’d like references or additional information for any of these roles, please get in touch.
Digging in the tropics
As a postdoc at ORNL/NGEE Tropics, my research revolves around understanding tropical forest functioning, specifically belowground (at the root level), and how these functions might change with climate change.
Researcher
I have over 14 years of experience in tropical ecology. My main interests have been nutrient cycling in tropical forests, plant response to climate change and most recently, the belowground rhizosphere in the tropics.
Amazon, Bolivia
I worked in the Bolivian Amazon measuring plant productivity. One major goal is to extend measurements in this country, especially belowground productivity and root traits.
TRACE
I am part of the Tropical Response to Altered Climate Experiment project in El Yunque Puerto Rico. This is the first warming experiment of the Neotropics! My job as a PhD. student there was to measure root response to temperature increase, and to Hurricane disturbance
- Yaffar, D., Wood, T.E., Reed, S.C., Branoff, B.L., Cavaleri, M.A. and Norby, R.J., 2021. Experimental warming and its legacy effects on root dynamics following two hurricane disturbances in a wet tropical forest. Global change biology, 27(24), pp.6423-6435.
NGEE Tropics
As a PhD. student, I was part of the NGEE Tropics project. My job here was to study fine root traits in some of the most common plant species of the Puerto Rican wet forest in Luquillo, and correlate them with soil phosphorus (P) available in order to infer different plant strategies used for P acquisition. The main goal was to be able to generalize the correlations in different wet tropical ecosystems
-Ziegler, C., Yaffar, D. and Cordeiro, A., 2019. Sampling in the dark: challenges in fine-root research. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union (Online), 100.
-Yaffar, D. and Norby, R.J., 2020. A historical and comparative review of 50 years of root data collection in Puerto Rico. Biotropica, 52(3), pp.563-576.
-Dickey, J.R., Swenie, R.A., Turner, S.C., Winfrey, C.C., Yaffar, D., Padukone, A., Beals, K.K., Sheldon, K.S. and Kivlin, S.N., 2021. The utility of macroecological rules for microbial biogeography. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, p.196.
-Mehring AS, Martin RM, Delavaux CS, James EB, Quispe JJ, Yaffar D. 2021. Leaf-cutting ant (Atta cephalotes) nests may be hotspots of methane and carbon dioxide emissions in tropical forests. Pedobiologia. Aug 1;87:150754.
-Cabugao, K.G., Yaffar, D., Stenson, N., Childs, J., Phillips, J., Mayes, M.A., Yang, X., Weston, D.J. and Norby, R.J., 2021. Bringing function to structure: Root–soil interactions shaping phosphatase activity throughout a soil profile in Puerto Rico. Ecology and Evolution, 11(3), pp.1150-1164.
Yaffar, D., Defrenne, C.E., Cabugao, K.G., Kivlin, S.N., Childs, J., Carvajal, N. and Norby, R.J., 2021. Trade-offs in phosphorus acquisition strategies of five common tree species in a tropical forest of Puerto Rico. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4.
Tropical Root traits- TropiRoots
TropiRoots is initiative of root ecologists from tropical regions where we aim to organize, synthesize, and publish as much data on tropical root traits.
The illustration shows fine-root diversity of morphological traits in a forest site of Puerto Rico. Some of the traits that we are interested in are root morphology, dynamics, chemistry, physiology, and microbial associations
-Cusack, Daniela Francis, et al. "Tradeoffs and synergies in tropical forest root traits and dynamics for nutrient and water acquisition: field and modeling advances." Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (2021): 161.
-Cusack D, Christoffersen B, Smith-Martin C, Andersen K, Cordeiro A (…) Yaffar D. 2024. Toward a coordinated understanding of hydro-biogeochemical root functions in tropical forests for application in vegetation models. New Phytologist.
-Yaffar D., Lugli L., et al. 2024. Tropical root responses to global climate changes: A Synthesis. Global Change Biology.
-Cordeiro A.,(..) Yaffar D., et al. TropiRoot 1.0. Ecology. In review.
As a root ecologist, I worked at the University of Hamburg for two years. Teaching and mentoring Ph.D. students.
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Yaffar, D., Addo-Danso, S.D., Powers, J.S. and Meier, I.C., 2023. Fundamental but underrepresented: root carbon stocks in African montane forests. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.
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Yaffar, D., Cabugao, K.G. and Meier, I.C., 2022. Representing root physiological traits in the root economic space framework. New Phytologist.
My ambitions
I’m seeking to collaborate with projects willing to include the root component in their NPP calculations, or any biogeochemical processes. With relevant experience in tropical ecosystems, proficient at 3 different languages I believe I can be efficient in the filed work, communicating the science with local communities, and analyzing the data. Take a look through my CV site to find out more about what I have to offer - or get in touch to discuss how I can help you on your next project
About Daniela Yaffar
Living and working in the Bolivian Amazon, and in the wet forests of Puerto Rico, I have had the opportunity to learn so much in my field. Now, I’m looking for new challenges and hope to venture even further down my chosen career path, learning as I go. Find out more about me by getting in touch.
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