Claudio Latorre

Claudio Latorre is a Professor at the Faculty of Biological Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where he directs the Paleoecology and Paleoenvironment Laboratory. His research focuses on reconstructing climate and ecological dynamics in arid ecosystems over the past 50,000 years, with primary fieldwork concentrated in the Atacama Desert.

His research integrates sediment analysis, plant/animal remains identification, stable isotope analysis, and paleogenomics to investigate spatial and temporal ecosystem dynamics. Key areas include rodent paleoburrows, paleowetlands, and archaeological shell middens as proxies for past climate variability, human-environment interactions, and biodiversity responses to hydrological changes. His work provides critical baselines for conservation under current climate change.

Analysis of his publication trends reveals consistent focus on Quaternary paleoenvironmental reconstruction using multi-proxy approaches. Dominant themes include Late Pleistocene megafauna dynamics, human colonization impacts, coastal upwelling variability, and hyperarid ecosystem resilience. His methodologies increasingly incorporate paleogenomics and high-resolution metabolomics to decode plant adaptation mechanisms in extreme environments.

Latorre actively collaborates with Chile's major research networks including the Millennium Institute of Integrative Biology (IBIO), Institute of Ecology & Biodiversity (IEB), and Center for Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES). His laboratory serves as a hub for interdisciplinary paleoenvironmental research spanning archaeology, climatology, and conservation biology.