Elvira Cuevas Viera is a Puerto Rican

ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

. She is a professor in the department of biology at

University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus The University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (; UPR-RP, or informally La IUPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the largest campus in the University of Puer ...

where she serves as director of th
Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation.

Early life and education

Cuevas was born on August 20, 1950, in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

. She became interested in science at a young age and originally planned to go into medicine. She shifted to

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

after taking an ecology course under Herminio Lugo Lugo at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

, Río Piedras Campus ( UPR-RP). She graduated with a bachelor's and master's degrees in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

at UPR-RP. Her 1975 master's thesis was titled ''Changes in selected water quality parameters as influenced by land use patterns in the Espiritu Santo drainage basin''. Cuevas completed a Ph.D. in

at the

Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research The Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC; ) is a scientific research institute and graduate training center in Venezuela founded by government decree on February 9, 1959. It has its origins in the Venezuelan Institute of Neurology an ...

(IVIC) in 1984. She was the first graduate in the field of ecology at IVIC in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. Her dissertation was titled ''Crecimiento de raices finas y su relacion con los procesos de descomposicion de materia organica y liberacion de nutrientes en bosques del alto Rio Negro en el territorio federal Amazonas''. She was a postdoctoral fellow with the

International Institute of Tropical Forestry The International Institute of Tropical Forestry () is a program of the United States Forest Service that was founded in 1939. It is headquartered in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, on the grounds of the University of Puerto Rico's Agricultural Exper ...

Career

Cuevas lived and worked in Venezuela for 25 years. In 2001, she joined the faculty at UPR-RP where she is a professor in the department of biology. She is the director of the Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation at UPR-RP. In May 2004, Cuevas became an adjunct faculty member in the department of management and conservation of natural resources in the faculty of veterinary and zootechnology at the

Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán The Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (''Autonomous University of Yucatan''), or UADY, is an autonomous public university in the state of Yucatán, Mexico, with its central campuses located in the state capital of Mérida. It is the largest te ...

Research

Cuevas researches

ecosystem ecology Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of living ( biotic) and non-living ( abiotic) components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components ...

, the processes and function of

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s, plant-soil interactions,

nutrient cycling A nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling) is the movement and exchange of inorganic and organic matter back into the production of matter. Energy flow is a unidirectional and noncyclic pathway, whereas the movement of mineral nutrients is cyc ...

, and the

carbon cycle The carbon cycle is a part of the biogeochemical cycle where carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of Earth. Other major biogeochemical cycles include the nitrogen cycle and the water cycl ...

. She also investigates the eco-hydrology of semi-arid systems and urban wetlands. Cuevas researches the ecophysiological responses of plants to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

climate variability Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more ...

, and

heavy metal pollution upright=1.2, Crystals of lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals is a controversial and ambiguous term for metallic elements with relatively h ...

in urban wetlands. She uses natural

stable isotope Stable nuclides are Isotope, isotopes of a chemical element whose Nucleon, nucleons are in a configuration that does not permit them the surplus energy required to produce a radioactive emission. The Atomic nucleus, nuclei of such isotopes are no ...

technology to identify sources of water and carbon in the soil and evaluate plants' responses to water and nutrient availability.

Awards and honors

In 2000, Cuevas was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

to study plant sciences. In 2019, she became the first Puerto Rican woman named to the .

Personal life

Cuevas is married and has a son. Both her husband and son are scientists.

Selected publications

Cuevas' most cited publications include: * Tiessen, H., Cuevas, E., & Chacon, P. (1994). The role of soil organic matter in sustaining soil fertility. ''Nature'', ''371''(6500), 783-785. * Martinelli, L. A., Piccolo, M. C., Townsend, A. R., Vitousek, P. M., Cuevas, E., McDowell, W., ... & Treseder, K. (1999). Nitrogen stable isotopic composition of leaves and soil: tropical versus temperate forests. ''Biogeochemistry'', ''46''(1-3), 45-65. * Tanner, E. V. J., Vitousek, P. A., & Cuevas, E. (1998). Experimental investigation of nutrient limitation of forest growth on wet tropical mountains. ''Ecology'', ''79''(1), 10-22. * Myers, R. J. K., Palm, C. A., Cuevas, E., Gunatilleke, I. U. N., & Brossard, M. (1994). The synchronisation of nutrient mineralisation and plant nutrient demand. * Cuevas, E., & Medina, E. (1988). Nutrient dynamics within Amazonian forests. ''Oecologia'', ''76''(2), 222-235.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuevas, Elvira Living people 1950 births Scientists from San Juan, Puerto Rico 21st-century Puerto Rican scientists Puerto Rican women scientists American ecologists Women ecologists 21st-century American biologists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists 20th-century American biologists American women biologists American expatriate academics American expatriates in Venezuela Plant ecologists University of Puerto Rico faculty University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus alumni Ecophysiologists American women academics