Agrobiodiversity encompasses the variety and variability of all living beings, be they wild or cultivated, used directly or indirectly by humans to meet their needs. A vital part of this research area is the diversity of the agroecosystems in which agrobiodiversity occurs, including the species that support its structure and functioning. Cultural and local knowledge of natural resource use and management is also important since it determines the evolution of living organisms during the domestication process, and how they can be used sustainably. Researchers in this area are engaged in multidisciplinary studies with special emphasis on Mesoamerican plant species.

• Ecology, use and management of non-timber forest resources.
• Influence of environmental, genetic and cultural factors on the use, management and conservation of aromatic plants.
• Genetic diversity and domestication.
• Conservation genetics of wild relatives.
• Ethnobotany, and in situ and ex situ conservation.
• Study species include oregano (Lippia origanoides), Lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), maize (Zea mays), papaya (Carica papaya), mamey (Pouteria sapota), vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), and guaya (Melicoccus oliviformis).

• Luz María del Carmen Calvo Irabien, PhD .
• Mariana Chávez Pesqueira, PhD.
• Jaime Martínez Castillo, PhD.
• Javier Orlando Mijangos Cortés, PhD.

Global change involves anthropogenic impacts on the fundamental processes that determine how the planet functions, and which add to and interact with changes produced by natural events. Researchers in this area carry out interdisciplinary research on ecosystem processes and the loss of natural capital (ecosystems, species, functions) produced by human activities.

• Climate change; biological sensitivity and human dimension (mitigation and adaptation planning).
• Effects of climate change on cultivated and wild plants.
• Factors, processes, and mechanisms affecting woody plant distribution, diversity and dynamics in human-modified landscapes (changes in land use and land covers).
• Plasticity, and physiological responses plants to climate.
• Effects of landscape structure and environmental variables on aboveground plant biomass, species richness and abundance.
• Land-use planning.
• Effects of changes in land use, and land cover on the structure, diversity, composition and functioning of terrestrial faunal communities.

• Juan Manuel Dupuy Rada, PhD.
• José Luis Hernández Stefanoni, PhD.
• Casandra Reyes García, PhD.

Human societies receive benefits from biodiversity and ecosystems that can be conceptualized as services: provisions (food, medicine, fresh water), regulation (of the climate and disease, water purification), cultural (recreation, education, spiritual) and support (biogeochemical cycles, soil formation, primary production). Researchers in this area engage in multidisciplinary investigations aimed at better understanding biodiversity’s role in supporting ecosystem services and resilience.

• Ecosystem vegetation services and their impact on climate change, restoration, food, and alternative energies.
• Water and carbon use by trees in natural systems, and in restoration.
• Water, carbon, and energy flows in ecosystems.
• Interactions between melliferous plants, microorganisms, and honey-producing bees.
• Interactions between seed beetles and plants of the morning-glory (Convolvulaceae) family.

• José Luis Andrade Torres, PhD.
• María Azucena Canto Aguilar, PhD.
• Pilar Gómez Ruiz, PhD.

Generation of knowledge about biodiversity and natural resources is instrumental to their conservation, use, and sustainable management. Researchers in this area focus on the taxonomy, floristics, biogeography, phylogenetic and molecular systematics, reproductive biology, and evolution of Neotropical plants.

• Evolution, molecular phylogenetic and systematics, taxonomy, and biogeography of Neotropical Orchidaceae.
• Taxonomic, phylogenetic, and reproductive investigations in the Bromeliaceae.
• Phylogenetic and floristic analyses of Fabaceae and Icacinaceae.
• Taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of genera in the Amaranthaceae.
• Floristics and biogeography of the Yucatan Peninsula.
• Neotropical plant biogeography.

• Germán Carnevali Fernández Concha, PhD.
• Rodrigo Duno de Stefano, PhD.
• Ivón Mercedes Ramírez Morillo, PhD.
• Ivonne Sánchez del Pino, PhD.