Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL

Avalanche bulletin and snow situation
Edition: Tue 19.11., 17:00
Avalanche Bulletin

Research Interests

My research interests focus on DNA-based approaches for biodiversity assessment and the monitoring of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. My journey in this field began during my Master's thesis, where I used diatom DNA metabarcoding for water quality assessment. This experience made me realize the efficiency of molecular methods for rapid and accurate species identification. Driven by my interest in environmental DNA techniques, I explored the diversity of fish and macroinvertebrates through genetic material found in aquatic biofilms during my Ph.D

Current Research Project

Currently, as a Postdoc, I am studying fungal diversity in riparian habitats using eDNA within the Resilient Rivers project (https://www.wsl.ch/de/projekte/resiliente-fliessgewaesser/). More specifically, I will assess how restoration measures (e.g., artificial floods or river widening) affect above-ground and below-ground fungal diversity.

Publications

  • Rivera et al. 2023. eDNA metabarcoding from aquatic biofilms allows studying spatial and temporal fluctuations of fish communities from Lake Geneva. Environmental DNA. doi.org/10.1002/edn3.413
  • Rivera et al. 2021. Fish eDNA metabarcoding from aquatic biofilm samples: methodological aspects. Molecular Ecology Resources 22(4), 1440-1453. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13568
  • Rivera et al. 2021. Exploring the capacity of aquatic biofilms to act as environmental DNA samplers: test on macroinvertebrates communities in rivers. Science of the Total Environment 763, 144208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144208
  • Rivera et al. 2020. Diatom metabarcoding applied to large scale monitoring networks: optimization of bioinformatics strategies using Mothur software. Ecological indicators 109: 105775. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105775
  • Rivera et al. 2018. DNA metabarcoding and microscopic analyses of sea turtles biofilms: Complementary to understand turtle behavior. PlosOne 13(4):e0195770. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195770
  • Rivera et al. 2018. Metabarcoding of lake benthic diatoms: from structure community to ecological assessment. Hydrobiologia 807: 37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-017-3381-2