Rosario Vidales

Rosario Vidales is a plant ecologist with research interests in functional traits and restoration monitoring. Her doctoral research focused on red mangrove forests in the Everglades and the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands and the use of the leaf functional trait approach to determine the main drivers of variance in red mangrove traits across scrub and tree island forest types. Her work also determined areas of mangrove loss and a baseline rate of change in the short stature mangrove forests of the Cutler Wetlands. As a postdoctoral associate with the Institute of Environment, Rosario’s research focuses on mangrove forest response to ongoing rehydration efforts by the South Florida Water Management District through various monitoring approaches including remote sensing. She hopes this work will directly inform the management of coastal wetlands.