Vanessa Solano is a PhD candidate in the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL). Her research explores the carbon fluxes in a small tropical savanna catchment in the wet-dry tropics. Prior to her PhD research, Vanessa worked for three years as a Research Assistant at the Water and Global Change Observatory, in the University of Costa Rica; and as a geographer in a consulting firm. Her research interest lies in physical geography, particularly in catchment hydrology and biogeochemistry.