Cristina Montiel-González

• PhD
• Investigador at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR)

Los compuestos fenólicos en las hojas de las plantas funcionan como defensa química contra el ataque de herbívoros y patógenos. Cuando se incorporan al suelo en forma de mantillo, pueden afectar los ciclos del carbono o nitrógeno al retrasar la colonización de organismos descomponedores. Dos grupos de compuestos fenólicos son particularmente import...

Reforestation plays an important role in attempting to reverse ecosystem degradation in arid regions, where natural rainfall variability makes ecological restoration difficult. The aim of this work was to evaluate the survival and growth of four native species of the Fabaceae family (Prosopis velutina Wooton, Havardia mexicana (Rose) Britton & Rose...

Hurricanes are extreme climatic events frequently affecting tropical regions such as the tropical dry forests (TDFs) in Mexico, where its frequency/intensity is expected to increase toward the year 2100. To answer how resistant is a Mexican tropical dry forest to a high-intensity hurricane, and if its degree of resistance was mediated by its conser...

Anthropogenic disturbance of tropical humid forests leads to habitat loss, biodiversity decline, landscape fragmentation, altered nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration, soil erosion, pest/pathogen outbreaks, among others. Nevertheless, the impact of these alterations in multitrophic interactions, including host–pathogen and vector–pathogen dyna...

The effect of anthropogenic disturbance on plant community traits and tradeoffs remains poorly explored in tropical forests. In this study, we aimed to identify tradeoffs between defense and other plant functions related to growth processes in order to detect potential aboveground and edaphic environmental conditions modulating traits variation on...

Si bien se ha mejorado la precisión de los escenarios del cambio climático global, la falta de datos climáticos de varias regiones del mundo significa que algunas predicciones presentan gran incertidumbre. Los estudios climáticos locales son críticos para la calibración de escenarios climáticos globales. El objetivo fue evaluar tendencias climática...

Two of the major challenges in achieving food security in the future are: (1) the increase in demand for food due to constant high population growth and (2) the increase in adverse climatic conditions, due to global climate change, that will affect crops. Currently, no universal indicators are available to identify the effect of extreme climate eve...

The quantification of plant secondary metabolites at levels higher than the population (i.e. community and ecosystem) requires the implementation of efficient, low-cost, and small-scale assays. We propose a modified protocol based on the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric assay that integrates the simultaneous quantitative determination of total phenols...

The quantification of plant secondary metabolites at levels higher than the population (i.e. community and ecosystem) requires the implementation of efficient, low-cost, and small-scale assays. We propose a modified protocol based on the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric assay that integrates the simultaneous quantitative determination of total phenols...

This study evaluated the response of bat communities, from a taxonomic and functional perspective, to variation in the vegetation and landscape attributes produced by anthropogenic activities. We characterized the following: (1) the community of phyllostomid and mormoopid bats associated with the initial successional stages of a tropical dry forest...

Rehabilitating degraded arid lands requires overcoming biotic and abiotic limitations. The objective of this study was to determine if low-cost protective shelters improve the survival and growth of palo verde (Parkinsonia microphylla) plants during the first year of reforestation at degraded sites in the Sonoran Desert. Protective shelters were bu...

Rainfed agriculture is one of the most vulnerable forms of crop to the effects of climate change producing either drought or excess moisture and thus damaging crops and causing substantial economic damage. In developing countries with scarce resources for technological investment, rainfed agriculture is extremely important for the food production....

Michoacán is among the states with higher rainfed agriculture production in México, and has substantial impact on the national economy. Despite the agricultural importance of this state, no agroclimatic studies have been perform to identify the Length of the Growing Period (LGP), which is the number of months when the climatic conditions are suitab...

The Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB) is considered an important biodiversity hot spot despite its arid climate conditions. The valley is located in the southern part of the Chihuahuan desert at 26° 50′ 41″ N and is strongly affected by a divergent wind zone with high pressure at 30° N. The average annual solar radiation is 5.28 kWh m day , exhibiting a...

Currently, one of the ecosystems considered to be most vulnerable by Global Climate Change (GCC) are the arid zones, which comprise approximately 41% of the planet's surface. The seriousness of this risk is worsened because large parts of the arid zones are used for crop cultivation. The practices of fertilizer addition and excessive irrigation hav...

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants absorb atmospheric carbon (C) as they grow and convert it to biomass. However, plants acquire nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) only when these are available in the soil solution, which makes these elements the most limiting nutrients to plant growth and productivity in most terrestrial ecosystems. This c...

Background Soil microbial communities (SMC) play a central role in the structure and function of desert ecosystems. However, the high variability of annual precipitation could results in the alteration of SMC and related biological processes depending on soil water potential. The nature of the physiological adjustments made by SMC in order to obtai...

Simple linear regressions between C:N microbial biomass and C:N soil resources Regression slope (mx), correlation coefficient (R2) and statistical significance (P < 0.05) are shown for the rosetophylous scrub (RS) and the grassland (G) soils for three years (2012, 2013 and 2014) in Cuatro Ciénegas Basin, Coahuila Mexico. (A) RS soil at 2012, (B) RS...

Simple linear regressions between C:P microbial biomass and C:P soil resources Regression slope (mx), correlation coefficient (R2) and statistical significance (P < 0.05) are shown for the rosetophylous scrub (RS) and the grassland (G) soils for three years (2012, 2013 and 2014) in Cuatro Ciénegas Basin, Coahuila Mexico.

Simple linear regression between annual rainfall and nutrient concentrations within microbial biomass Regression slope (mx), correlation coefficient (R2) and statistical significance (P < 0.05) are shown between C, N, and P in microbial biomass quantified in the rosetophylous scrub (RS) and the grassland (G) soils and the annual accumulated precipi...

Bilateral ovariectomy or adrenalectomy are experimental tools used to understand the mechanisms regulating the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. There is evidence that acute unilateral perforation of the dorsal peritoneum in rats results in significant changes in progesterone, testosterone and estradiol ser...