Julissa Rojas-Sandoval

Assistant Professor

Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies

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Education

Ph.D., University of Puerto Rico (2010)

Areas of Specialty

• Invasion Ecology
• Tropical Ecology and Conservation
• Biogeography
• Population Dynamics
• Community Ecology
• Responses to Human-caused Environmental Changes

Current Research Interests

• Biological invasions in Connecticut, the Caribbean and Central America
• Recovery pathways in Caribbean forests after hurricanes
• Ecosystem Services
• Machine Learning in Ecology
• Urban and Exurban Ecology

Selected Publications

Rojas-Sandoval, J., Ackerman, J.D., Dueñas, M.A., Velez, J. and Díaz-Soltero, H., 2024. Habitat affiliation of non-native plant species across their introduced ranges on Caribbean islands. Biological Invasions. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-024-03307-4

Nytch, C.J., Rojas-Sandoval, J., Erazo Oliveras, A., Santiago García, R.J. and Melendez-Ackerman, E. 2023. Effects of historical land use and recovery pathways on composition, structure, ecological function, and ecosystem services in a Caribbean secondary forest. Forest Ecology and Management. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112723005455

Rojas-Sandoval J., Ferrufino-Acosta L., Flores R., Galan P., Lopez O., MacVean A., Rodriguez D., Ruiz Y. and Chacon-Madrigal E. 2022. Flora introduced and naturalized in Central America. Biological Invasions. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-022-02968-3

Rojas-Sandoval J., Ackerman D.A., Marcano-Vega H., Willig M.R. 2022. Alien species affect the abundance and richness of native species in tropical forests: The role of adaptive strategies. Ecosphere http://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4291

Fridley J.D, Bellingham, P.J., Closset-Kopp D., Daehler C., Dechoum M., Martin P., Murphy H., Rojas-Sandoval J., and Tng D. 2022. A general hypothesis of forest invasions by woody plants based on whole-plant carbon economics. Journal of Ecology. http://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14001

Olivero-Lora S., Rojas-Sandoval J., and Melendez-Ackerman E. 2022. Hurricane driven changes in vegetation structure and ecosystem services in tropical urban yards: a study case in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Urban Ecosystems. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01236-5

Melendez-Ackerman E. and Rojas-Sandoval J. 2021. Profiling native and introduced perennial garden plants in Puerto Rican urban residential yards. Journal of Urban Ecology https://doi.org/10.1093/jue/juaa037

Rojas-Sandoval J., Ackerman J.D., Tremblay RL. 2020. Island biogeography of native and alien plant species: contrasting drivers of diversity across the Lesser Antilles. Diversity and Distributions https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13139