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Ana López - Ballesteros
Former BC3 researcher
Main Research Field:
Biophysics and terrestrial ecology
Was employee in BC3 from 2020-03-01 to 2022-03-01
Short CV
My research is focused on understanding how land use change, management and climate variability affect the functioning of natural and managed ecosystems, concretely their capability to exchange mass and energy with the atmosphere. I also investigate ecosystem-atmosphere greenhouse gas exchange, including soil and vegetation subsystems by using the eddy covariance technique, soil/vegetation chambers and remotely sensed data.
I started to do research thanks to the collaboration and PhD grants I received by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain. In 2013, I achieved a Master´s Degree in Geophysics and Meteorology and I started to develop my PhD work in the Departments of Ecology and Applied Physics at University of Granada (UGR) and in the Department of Geo-ecology at the Desertification in the Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA-CSIC). During this period, I investigated carbon and water cycling in water-limited ecosystems and managed several eddy covariance stations. In 2017, I defended my PhD thesis at UGR obtaining the Cum Laude distinction and the International Doctoral Degree.
During my postdoctoral stage, I firstly worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering and Forestry (University of Castilla La Mancha), where I performed QC/QA analyses of eddy covariance data acquired in several forestry ecosystems. Afterwards, I moved to the Botany Department of Trinity College of Dublin (Ireland) to work, in collaboration with other 16 European and African institutions, on the European H2020 SEACRIFOG project (Supporting EU-African cooperation on research infrastructures for food security and greenhouse gas observation). The main goal of this project was to design a network of research infrastructures to monitor the main climate forcing components (e.g. GHG fluxes and stocks) across the under-studied African continent. During this period, I also worked with the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University College of Dublin (UCD) in the PROTECTS project (Protecting terrestrial ecosystems through sustainable pesticide use).
Journal Articles
- 2023
- López-Ballesteros, A., Rodríguez-Caballero, E., Moreno, G., Escribano, P., Hereş, A.M., Yuste, J.C. 2023. Topography modulates climate sensitivity of multidecadal trends of holm oak decline. Global Change Biology. 29. (22) 6336-6349. DOI (10.1111/gcb.16927).
- 2022
- Moya, M.R., López-Ballesteros, A., Sánchez-Cañete, E.P., Serrano-Ortiz, P., Oyonarte, C., Domingo, F., Kowalski, A. 2022. Ecosystem CO2 release driven by wind occurs in drylands at global scale. Global Change Biology. 28. (17) 5320-5333. DOI (10.1111/gcb.16277).
- Ruiz-Álvarez, M., Gomariz-Castillo, F., Alonso-Sarría, F., López-Ballesteros, A. 2022. Estimation of actual evapotranspiration using TDTM model and MODIS derived variables. Geocarto International. 37. (25) 9242-9260. DOI (10.1080/10106049.2021.2017011).
- 2021
- Merbold, L., Scholes, R.J., Acosta, M., Beck, J., Bombelli, A., Fiedler, B., Grieco, E., Helmschrot, J., Hugo, W., Kasurinen, V., Kim, D.G., Körtzinger, A., Leitner, S., López-Ballesteros, A., Ndisi, M., Nickless, A., Salmon, E., Saunders, M., Skjelvan, I., Vermeulen, A.T., Kutsch, W.L. 2021. Opportunities for an African greenhouse gas observation system. Regional Environmental Change. 21. (4) DOI (10.1007/s10113-021-01823-w).
- Mesnage, R., Straw, E.A., Antoniou, M.N., Benbrook, C., Brown, M.J.F., Chauzat, M.P., Finger, R., Goulson, D., Leadbeater, E., López-Ballesteros, A., Möhring, N., Neumann, P., Stanley, D., Stout, J.C., Thompson, L.J., Topping, C.J., White, B., Zaller, J.G., Zioga, E. 2021. Improving pesticide-use data for the EU. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 5 (12) 1560. DOI (10.1038/s41559-021-01574-1).
- 2020
- Nickless, A., Scholes, R.J., Vermeulen, A., Beck, J., López-Ballesteros, A., Ardö, J., Karstens, U., Rigby, M., Kasurinen, V., Pantazatou, K., Jorch, V., Kutsch, W. 2020. Greenhouse gas observation network design for Africa. Tellus, Series B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology. 72. (1) 1-30-30. DOI (10.1080/16000889.2020.1824486).
Affiliation previous to BC3
Nickless A., Scholes R., Vermeulen A., Beck J., López-Ballesteros A., Ardö J., Kartens U., Rigby M., Kasurinen V., Pantazatou K., Kutsch W. 2020 Greenhouse gas observation network design for Africa. Tellus Series B: Chemical and physical meteorology. DOI: 10.1080/16000889.2020.1824486Pastorello et al. 2020 The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data. Scientific Data. DOI: 10.1038/s41597-020-0534-3
López-Ballesteros A., Beck J., Helmschrot J. and Saunders M. 2020 Harmonised observations of climate forcing across Africa: An assessment of existing approaches and their applicability. Environmental Research Letters. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab82ce
Serrano-Ortiz P., Aranda-Barranco S., López-Ballesteros A., Lopez-Canfin C., Sánchez-Cañete E.P., Meijide A., Kowalski A.S. 2019 Transition period between vegetation growth and senescence controls interannual variability of C fluxes in a Mediterranean reed wetland. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. DOI: 10.1029/2019JG005169
Beck J., López-Ballesteros A., Hugo W., Scholes R., Saunders M. and Helmschrot J. 2019 Development of a Climate Forcing Observation System for Africa: Data-Related Considerations. Data Science Journal. DOI: 10.5334/dsj-2019-042
Moya R.M., Sánchez-Cañete, E.P., Vargas R., López-Ballesteros A., Oyonarte C., Kowalski A.S., Serrano-Ortiz P. and Domingo F. 2019 Vadose zone CO2 dynamics are strongly influenced by low frequency atmospheric pressure changes in semiarid grasslands. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. DOI: 10.1029/2018JG004961
López-Ballesteros, A., Beck, J., Bombelli, A., Grieco, E., Lorencová, E. K., Merbold, L., Brümmer, C., Hugo, W., Scholes, B., Va?ká?, D., Vermeulen, A., Acosta, M., Butterbach-Bahl, K., Helmschrot, J., Kim, D. G., Jones, M., Jorch, V. Pavelka, M., Skjelvan, I., Saunders, M. 2018 Towards a feasible and representative pan-African Research Infrastructure network for GHG observations. Environmental Research Letters. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aad66c.
Saunders, M., Dengel, S., Moureaux, C., Montagnani, L., Ceschia, E., Altimir, N., López-Ballesteros, A., Marañon-Jimenez, S., Kolari, P., Acosta, M., Klummp, K., Gielen, B., Op de Beeck, M., Merbold, L., Osborne, B., Grunwald, T., Jones, M. 2018 Assessing the impacts of site characteristics, management, disturbance and lateral fluxes on net ecosystem carbon dynamics at ICOS sites. International Agrophysics. DOI: 10.1515/intag-2017-0040.
Franz, D., Acosta, M., Altimir, N., Arriga, N., Aubinet, M., Aurela, M., Arrouays, D., Ayres, E., López-Ballesteros, A., et al. 2018 Towards long-term standardised carbon and greenhouse gas observations for monitoring Europe´s terrestrial ecosystems: a review. International Agrophysics. DOI: 10.1515/intag-2017-0039.
Vargas, R., Sánchez-Cañete, E. P., Serrano-Ortiz, P., Curiel-Yuste, J., Domingo, F., Kowalski, A. S., López-Ballesteros, A., Oyonarte, C. 2018 Hot-moments of carbon dioxide fluxes in a water-limited grassland: variability and mechanisms. Soil Systems. DOI: 10.3390/soilsystems2030047.
López-Ballesteros, A., Oyonarte, C., Kowalski, A. S., Serrano-Ortiz, P., Sánchez-Cañete, E. P., Moya, M. R., Domingo, F. 2018 Can land degradation drive differences in the C exchange of two similar semiarid ecosystems? Biogeosciences. DOI: 10.5194/bg-15-263-2018
López, C. J. R., Sánchez-Cañete, E. P., Serrano-Ortiz, P., López-Ballesteros, A., Domingo, F., Kowalski, A. S., Oyonarte, C. 2018 From microsite to ecosystem: analysing the spatio-temporal variability of soil CO2 dynamics in a karst shrubland. European Journal of Soil Science. DOI: 10.1111/ejss.12710.
Yao, Y., Liang, S., Li, X., Liu, S., Chen, J., Jia, K., Zhang, X., Fisher, J. B., Wang, X., Zhang, L., Xu, J., Shao, C., Posse, G., Li, Y., Magliulo, V., Varlagin, A., Moors, E. J., Boike, J., Macfarlane, C., Kato, T., Buchmann, N., Billesbach, D. P., Beringer, J., Wolf, S., Papuga, S. A., Wohlfahrt, G., Montagnani, L., Ardö, J., Paul-Limoges, E., Emmel, C., Hörtnagl, L. J., Sachs, T., Gruening, C., Gioli, B., López-Ballesteros, A., Steinbrecher, R., Gielen, B. 2017 Estimation of high-resolution terrestrial evapotranspiration from Landsat data using a simple Taylor skill fusion method. Journal of Hydrology.
López-Ballesteros, A., Serrano-Ortiz, P., Kowalski, A.S., Sánchez-Cañete, E. P., Scott, R. L., Domingo, F. 2017 Subterranean ventilation of allochthonous CO2 governs net CO2 exchange in a semiarid Mediterranean grassland. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. Vol. 234, DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2016.12.021
López-Ballesteros, A., Serrano-Ortiz, P., Sánchez-Cañete, E. P., Oyonarte, C., Kowalski, A.S., Pérez-Priego, Ó., Domingo, F. 2016 Enhancement of the net CO2 release of a semiarid grassland in SE Spain by rain pulses. Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences. Vol. 121, DOI: 10.1002/2015JG003091.
Chamizo, S., Serrano-Ortiz, P., López-Ballesteros, A., Sanchez-Cañete, E. P., Vicente-Vicente, J. L., Kowalski, A. S. 2016 Net ecosystem CO2 exchange in an irrigated olive orchard of SE Spain: influence of weed cover. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. Vol. 239, DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2017.01.016.
Perez-Priego, O., Lopez-Ballesteros, A., Sanchez-Cañete, E., Serrano-Ortiz, P., Kutzbach, L., Domingo, F., Wegner, E., Kowalski, A.S. 2015 Analyzing uncertainties in the calculation of fluxes using canopy chambers: Systematic and random errors. Plant and Soil. Vol. 393, DOI: 10.1007/s11104-015-2481-x.
Affiliation previous to BC3
Ndisi M., Nickless A., Beck J., López-Ballesteros A., Kasurinen V., Merbold L., Scholes R. J., Salmon E., Vermeulen A., Werner L Kutsch W. L. 2020 Concept paper for an adapted observation system for Africa including special and sectoral observational requirements to integrate multiple Grand Challenges in Africa. EU H2020 Project 730995 - Supporting EU-African Cooperation on Research Infrastructures for Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Observations (SEACRIFOG). Deliverable 3.2.López-Ballesteros, A., Beck, J., Skjelvan, I., Omar, A., Johannessen, T., Pfeil, B., Castaño-Primo, R., Karslen, M. K., Saunders, M. 2019 Training workshops in measurement, data management and quality control methodologies for the observation of greenhouse gas dynamics in the atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial domains. EU H2020 Project 730995 - Supporting EU-African Cooperation on Research Infrastructures for Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Observations (SEACRIFOG). Deliverable 4.4.
López-Ballesteros, A., Beck, J., Saunders, M. 2019 Methodological protocols for the observation of climate change across Africa: an assessment of the current approaches with insights into the feasibility of implementation. EU H2020 Project 730995 - Supporting EU-African Cooperation on Research Infrastructures for Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Observations (SEACRIFOG). Deliverable 4.3.
Beck, J., López-Ballesteros, A., Helmschrot, J., Saunders, M. 2019 Climate Change Observation across Africa: Data Requirements and Availability. EU H2020 Project 730995 - Supporting EU-African Cooperation on Research Infrastructures for Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Observations (SEACRIFOG). Deliverable 4.2.
Beck, J., López-Ballesteros, A., Omar, A., Johannessen, T., Skjelvan, I., Helmschrot, J., Saunders, M. 2018 Identification of Key Variables for Climate Change Observation across Africa. EU H2020 Project 730995 - Supporting EU-African Cooperation on Research Infrastructures for Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Observations (SEACRIFOG). Deliverable 4.1.
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