J. Nicolas Urbina-Cardona

He completed his bachelor's degree in Ecology at the Faculty of Environmental and Rural Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogota-Colombia) between 1997 and 2002. He did his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in Mexico at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) on the Edge and matrix effects in the tropical rainforest herpetofauna and its relationship to environmental and vegetation structure gradients (2002-2007). He obtained a postdoctoral position at the Museum of Zoology, Department of Evolutionary Biology - Faculty of Sciences (UNAM) in the use of species distribution models to evaluate the effectiveness of protected areas to conserve endemic and endangered herpetofaunal species and to prioritize and design conservation area networks (2007-2008). He was core staff as Ecosystem Services Coordinator at the NGO Conservation International-Colombia (2009-2011) and leaded projects related with: Biodiversity offsets (voluntary environmental compensation in coal mining), technological tools to assess impacts on biodiversity infrastructure, development and monitoring the implementation of national public policies on biodiversity, he was part of the team that wrote the “public district policy for biodiversity conservation and management” development of watershed management plans, and conducted studies that seek the inclusion of natural capital and ecosystem services in relation with human wellbeing into national accounts (“green accounting”). In May 2011 he obtained a position as Assistant Professor and Researcher at the Department of Ecology and Territory, School of Rural and Environmental Studies Faculty at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Bogotá, Colombia. He was the Director of the Bachelor Program in Ecology at the Faculty from March 2012 to May 2015 and now he teaches and do research as an Associate professor. His principal areas of research are conservation biology, community ecology, functional ecology, and herpetology. Specifically, his topics of research are (1) Tropical biodiversity (mainly herpetofauna) responses to anthropogenic disturbances, habitat transformation (amount, fragmentation, loss, and configuration), edge and matrix effects, successional consequences and productive systems; (2) Herpetofaunal species distribution models (SDM) and their use to (a) evaluate climate change effects on the distribution of invasive species, (b) assess Protected Area' efficiency to conserve endemics, and (c) design biological conservation area networks. He was the leader of the Connectivity Conservation Thematic Group of the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) from 2011 to 2013, and the regional Chair for Colombia of the Amphibian Specialist Group / Species Survival Commission – SSC from 2012 to 2022 at the International Union for Conservation of Nature – IUCN. He is associate editor of 3 scientific journals: Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation, Tropical Conservation Science, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (section Conservation). He is a member of the Group on Earth Observations - Biodiversity Observation Network (GEOBON). He has published 70 scientific papers, 23 book chapters, and 6 books. He has presented 117 works in scientific meetings. He has been a thesis advisor of 13 PhD, 27 Masters and 28 undergrad works. He currently teaches classes on animal systematics, community ecology, functional ecology, conservation biology, and research design.