For the last 20 million years, volcanic activity in south-central Mexico has created a geological mosaic that shapes the patterns of structure and diversity of the vegetation across the region. In El Tepozteco National Park, just a few miles south of Mexico City, oak forests cover a complex geomorphological landscape composed of eroded lahars and lava flows of different ages and degrees of soil development.
For my Bachelor research thesis, I described the patterns of oak forest diversity and structure across this geomorphological mosaic, analysed its relation to landscape-scale environmental heterogeneity, and studied the potential of analysing Google Earth satellite image attributes to model and predict vegetation properties.