Research in Gabriela Garcia’s group is positioned at the intersection of today’s biodiversity, food security, and climate crises. As shifting precipitation patterns and extreme events disrupt agroecosystem function and threaten farmer livelihoods, they advance a predictive framework for understanding how socio-ecological systems respond to disturbance.
The group integrates ecological fieldwork, qualitative interview analyses, and large-scale datasets to explore the reciprocal relationships between plants and people. They are especially interested in the ways plant population and community dynamics feedback with human well-being and management decision-making.
They value cross-disciplinary, collaborative, solution-driven research. Sharing research findings broadly, and ensuring they reach focal communities and policymakers, are core principles of their work.
Publications
In The News
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Research
Sociology, meet ecology: How the variability of coffee harvests can teach us about sustainable farming
New research from Gabriela Garcia and Laura Kuhl looks at farmers’ responses to variable crop yields to make better recommendations for resilient practices. -
Northeastern research sheds light on low crop yields and their impact on small farms
In recently published research, Gabriela Garcia and her collaborators have developed a framework for how to understand alternate bearing.