Anibal H. Castillo
Research Leader | Biodiversity Genomics | Scientific Project Management
Principal Investigator and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Guelph with 17+ years of experience leading genomics, biodiversity, and international research initiatives.
Currently Exploring Future Opportunities
As I near completion of my Ph.D. at the University of Guelph, I am interested in connecting with organizations seeking expertise in research leadership, scientific project management, genomics, biodiversity science, research operations, and environmental innovation.
I welcome conversations with academic institutions, government agencies, non-profit organizations, research centres, and industry partners interested in advancing science, conservation, and evidence-based decision making.
Projects
“Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment in an Anthropogenic Land Degradation Gradient: a Metabarcoding Approach” [Evaluación de la biodiversidad terrestre en un gradiente antropogénico de degradación de la tierra: un enfoque de metabarcoding]
Read more... (under construction...)
Soil and leaf-litter biodiversity along an elevational gradient
Agroecosystems have provided me with a great sandbox where I could control biotic and abiotic variables. However, there are limitations to the research context that restrict my ability to fully explore the complexity of the relationship between invertebrate community structure and the functions they provide. To better understand this relationship requires a more diverse, natural experiment.
The Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG), in northwestern Costa Rica, is a biodiversity hotspot - estimated home to at least 2.6 % of global diversity (Smith et al., 2014). The natural (elevation) and anthropogenic (forest degradation/agriculture) gradients within ACG provide an excellent opportunity to understand how soil biodiversity varies over naturally occurring abiotic and biotic gradients.
Invertebrate biodiversity in agricultural fields
I'm interested in validating metabarcoding as a method to detect species of interest as part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Stay tuned for our paper!