Dr Oscar Rodriguez De Rivera Ortega
Lecturer
Mathematics and Statistics
My research efforts focus on identifying and quantifying spatial and spatio-temporal patterns in the ecological processes and the agents responsible for those patterns, how these patterns affect variation in the distribution and abundance of wildlife, how these patterns and processes change over time under natural and anthropogenic influences, and how to apply this knowledge to manage natural resources.
Different ecosystems can coexist in heterogeneous environments that are constantly changing in response to disturbance and successional processes, knowledge of how the spatial pattern of habitat influences population dynamics is essential in order to predict and understand ecosystems and natural resources.
Broadly, I use statistical inference for latent Gaussian Markov random field processes for spatial and spatio-temporal modelling. This includes from geostatistical data to log Gaussian cox processes to uncover ecological interactions, and continuous space-time models based on stochastic partial differential equations to resolve issues of scale dependence in ecological analyses.
Broad research specialisms:
- Spatial and spatio temporal models applied to species distribution.
- Understanding effects and causality of environmental disturbances such as forest fires, pests, pollutants and climate change.
- Applications of statistics in environmental science and conservation.
Qualifications:
- PhD in Statistics, University of Valencia, Spain
- MSc in Biostatistics, University of Valencia, Spain
- BEng Forest Sciences, University of Oviedo, Spain
Career:
- 2023 -. Lecturer in Statistic (Data Sciences & Environmental Intelligence), University of Exeter
- 2021 - 2023. Lecturer in Statistic, University of Kent
- 2019 - 2021. PDRA, Statistical Ecology @ Kent, University of Kent
- 2017 - 2019. Data Scientist, Thames Water Utilities
- 2016 - 2017. GIS Analyst, Cyient/DEFRA Rural Payments Agency
- 2015 - 2016. Visiting Researcher. Imperial College of London
- 2015 - 2016. Data Scientist. Wipro EcoEnergy
