Leopoldo GarcÃa Sancho
Professor
Department of Plant Biology
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Spain
Biography
Considerable experience on ecology and diversity of alpine and polar Antarctic lichens and mosses. Considerable experience both in Spain and Germany in the use of advanced gas exchange and fluorescence systems for measuring photosynthesis. Considerable research experience on lower plant ecophysiology in Mediterranean high mountains, badlands and Antarctic ecosystems. Leader or invited investigator of twelve expeditions to Antarctica with one (1989) including the first measuring of the gas exchange of crustose lichens in the Antarctic and other (2003) including a survey across the Transantarctic mountains (83-84ºS). Head of the first Spanish exobiology experiment supported by the European Space Agency (2005). Head of the IPY Project “Glacier retreat, colonization processes and gen flow in primary plant communities from the arctic and Antarctic (POLAR-PIONER)â€.exobiology experiment
Research Interest
exobiology experiment
Publications
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Wierzchos, J, Sancho, L.G. & Ascaso, C. (2005) Biomineralisation of endolithic microbes in rocks from the Antarctic Ross desert: implications for microbial fossil formation and their detection. Environmental Microbiology 7: 566-575.
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Sancho, L.G. & Pintado, A. (2004) Evidence of high annual growth rate for Antarctic lichens. Polar Biology 27: 132-317.
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De los Rios, A., Wierzchos, J., Sancho, L.G. & Ascaso, C. (2003) Acid microenvironments in microbial biofilms of antarctic endolithic microecosystems. Environmental Microbiology 5: 231-237.
