SORTEE member voices – Juan Rocha
[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
Name: Juan Rocha.
Date: 09 July 2021.
Position: Researcher.
Research and/or work interests: I’m a research scientist at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. My research questions are oriented towards understanding critical transitions: from regime shifts in ecological systems, to collective action in society. Currently I’m focusing on the idea of cascading effects: how a critical transition in an ecosystem in the world can impact the likelihood of other ecosystems tipping over. I develop mathematical models to explore which interconnections are plausible, and look for empirical signatures of cascading effects on trade networks and rainfall transport dynamics. I’m interested in methods for identifying resilience surrogates – good observables that can tell you how resilient a system is – as well as misperception of feedbacks and their consequences. I find inspiration in complex systems science, and the use of mathematical models, networks and other computational methods to understand social and ecological complexity.