Education

• Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (2010). Faculty of Sciences, Autonomous University of
  Madrid. The Aquifer of Doñana as an Ecological System: Structure and Function of its Microbial
  Communities
• M.Sc. in Ecology and Environmental Sciences (2005). Faculty of Sciences, Autonomous University of Madrid. The Functional Role of the Microbial Community in the Aquifer of Almonte-Marismas in Doñana (Huelva, Spain)
• Graduate in Biology (2001). Faculty of Sciences, Autonomous University of Madrid

Current positions

• Assistant Researcher. Laboratorio de interacciones entre Clima, Ecosistemas y Biodiversidad (iCEB Lab). Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera (CIMA/UBA–CONICET). Instituto Franco-Argentino de Estudios sobre el Clima y sus Impactos (IFAECI/CNRS–IRD–CONICET–UBA)
• Lecturer. Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución (DEGE). Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (FCEyN) Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)

Publications in refereed journals (last 5 years)

• F. Spirito, S. Velasco Ayuso, P. M. Tognetti, M. S. Campana & L. Yahdjian (2025). Long-term grazing and short-term nutrient addition determine C sequestration in humid grasslands. Ecosystems, manuscript in preparation
• P. Calzada, P. Flombaum, A. M. Godeas, F. M. Ibarbalz, V. Silvani, L. Yahdjian, R. R.
  Ruscica & S. Velasco Ayuso (2025). Biological soil crusts and plants maintain soil surface
  stability and alleviate desertification: a field approach across Argentinean drylands.
  Drylands, manuscript in preparation
• S. Velasco Ayuso, E. Filippini, A. Navas Romero, E. Mlewski, P. Calzada Giuntini, R.
  García & I. Garibotti (2025). Discovering a hidden ecological treasure: biological soil crusts
  of Argentina. Ecología Austral, 35: 210-235
• S. Velasco Ayuso, G. R. Oñatibia & L. Yahdjian (2024). Soil multifunctionality increases
  after grazing cessation in semiarid rangelands. Applied Soil Ecology, 201: 105522
• F. T. Maestre, Y. Le Bagousse-Pinguet, M. Delgado-Baquerizo, D. J. Eldridge, H. Saiz, M.
  Berdugo, B. Gozalo, V. Ochoa, E. Guirado, M. García-Gómez, E. Valencia, J. J. Gaitán, S.
  Asensio, B. J. Mendoza, C. Plaza, P. Díaz-Martínez, A. Rey, Hang-Wei Hu, Ji-Zheng He,
• Jun-Tao Wang, A. Lehamnn, M. C. Rillig, S. Cesarz, N. Eisenhauer, J. Martínez-Valderrama, E. Moreno-Jiménez, O. Sala, …, S. Velasco Ayuso, … (2022). Livestock grazing and ecosystem service delivery in global drylands. Science, 378: 915-920
• F. M. Ibarbalz, J. J. Pierella-Karlusich, S. Velasco Ayuso, N. Visintini, L. Guidi, C.
  Bowler & P. Flombaum (2022). Phytoplankton community composition in the SW South
  Atlantic in the context of the global ocean. Ecología Austral, 85: 835-848
• L. Yahdjian, L. Carboni, S. Velasco Ayuso & G. R. Oñatibia (2022). Intensification of
  livestock farming in times of climate change. Mètode Science Studies Journal, https://doi.org/
  10.7203/metode.13.21553
• A. M. Faist, C. J. Tucker, S. C. Reed, A. J. Antoninka, M. A. Bowker, N. N. Barger, K.
  Dohrenwend, N. Day, S. Bellagamba, J. Belnap, M. C. Duniway, S. Fick, A. M. Giraldo
  Silva, C. J. Nelson, J. Bethany, S. Velasco Ayuso & F. García-Pichel (2020). Operation
  Manual for Biocrust Restoration in Drylands. Wildlife Conservation Society & Doris Duke
  Charitable Foundation, pp. 37
• R. Ochoa-Hueso, E. T. Borer, E. W. Seabloom, S. E. Hobbie, A. C. Risch, S. L. Collins, J.
  Alberti, H. A. Bahamonde, C. Brown, M. Caldeira, P. Daleo, C. R. Dickman, A. Ebeling,
  N. Eisenhauer, E. Esch, A. Eskelinen, V. Fernández, S. Güsewell, B. Gutiérrez-Larruga, K.
  Hofmockel, R. Laungani, E. Lind, A. López, R. McCulley, J. Moore, P. Peri, S. A. Power, J.
  Price, S. M. Prober, C. Roscher, J. Sarneel, M. Schütz, J. Siebert, R. Standish, S. Velasco
  Ayuso, R. Virtanen, G. M. Wardle, G. Wiehl, L. Yahdjian & T. Zamin (2020). Microbial
  processing of plant remains is co-limited by multiple nutrients in global grasslands. Global
  Change Biology, 26: 4572-4582
• S. Velasco Ayuso, A. M. Giraldo Silva, N. N. Barger & F. García-Pichel (2020). Microbial inoculum production for biocrust restoration: testing the effects of common versus native soil on yield and community composition. Restoration Ecology, 28: 194-202
• A. M Faist, A. J. Antoninka, J. Belnap, M. A. Bowker, M. C. Duniway, F. García-Pichel, C.
  J. Nelson, S. C. Reed, A. M. Giraldo Silva, S. Velasco Ayuso & N. N. Barger (2020).
  Inoculum and habitat amelioration efforts demonstrate variable influences on biological
  soil crust recovery across hot and cold deserts. Restoration Ecology, 28: 96-105
• S. Velasco Ayuso, G. R. Oñatibia, F. T. Maestre & L. Yahdjian (2020). Grazing pressure
  interacts with aridity to determine the development and diversity of biological soil crusts in
  Patagonian rangelands. Land Degradation and Development, 31: 488-499