Magda Pla studied Biology in Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Master in GIS and Remote sensing  by Institut d'Estudis Espaials de Catalunya (IEEC) and also Master in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya & Universitat de Barcelona (UOC-UB).    

She started her professional career in 2002 as a technician in the Department of Geography at UAB. On October 2005 she started her relationship with the Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology Lab led by Dr.Lluís Brotons into the CTFC. Her current work focuses on lanscape pressures that afect biodiversity and habitats distribution. She is also involved in the generation of several GIS products related to biodivesrity conservation and management.

Brotons, L.; Pou, N.; Herrando, S.; Bota, G.; Villero, D.; Garrabou, J.;Ordóñez, J. L.; Anton, M.; Gual,G.; Recoder, L.; Alcaraz, J.; Pla,M.; Sainz de la Maza, P.; Pont, S. i Pino, J. 2020. Estat de la Natura a Catalunya 2020. Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat. Generalitat de Catalunya. Barcelona. http://observatorinatura.cat/

Otsu, K.; Pla, M.; Duane, A.; Cardil, A.; Brotons, L. 2019 Estimating the Threshold of Detection on Tree Crown Defoliation Using Vegetation Indices from UAS Multispectral Imagery. Drones , 3, 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones3040080

Pla, M.  Bota, G.; Duane, A.; Balagué, J.; Curcó, A.; Gutiérrez, R.; Brotons, L. 2019. Calibrating Sentinel-2 Imagery with Multispectral UAV Derived Information to Quantify Damages in Mediterranean Rice Crops Caused by Western Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio). Drones 3, no. 2: 45. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones3020045

Cardil,A., Otsu,K., Pla, M., Silva, C.A., Brotons, L., 2019. Quantifying pine processionary moth defoliation in a pine-oak mixed forest using unmanned aerial systems and multispectral. PLoSONE 14(3):e0213027 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213027

Coll L, Márquez A, Blázquez A, Pla M, García MB, Errea MP, Montes F, Camarero JJ, Ameztegui A. 2019. Pasado, presente y futuro de los bosques de montaña (I): expansión del bosque. En: Proyectos de investigación en Parques Nacionales: 2013-2017. Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales, Madrid. ISBN: 978-84-8014-8924-2

Otsu, K., Pla, M., Vayreda, J., Brotons, L.,2018. Calibrating the severity of Forest Defoliation by Pine Porcessionary Moth with Landsat and UAV imagery. Sensors 18(10), 3278; doi: 10.3390/s18103278. 

Pla, M., Duane, A., Brotons, L. 2017. Potential of UAV images as ground-truth data for burn severity classification of Landsat imagery: approaches to an useful product for post-fire management. Revista de Teledetección 49, 91-102

Clavero,M., Ninyerola, M., Hermoso, V., Filipe, A., Pla, M., Villero, D., Brotons, L., Delibes, M. 2017. Historical citizen science to understand and predict climate driven trout decline. Proc. R. Soc. B 284: 20161979.

Villero, D., Pla, M., Camps, D., Ruiz-Olmo, J., Brotons, L. 2016. Integrating species distribution modelling into decision-making to inform conservation actions. Biodivers Conserv. DOI 10.1007/s10531-016-1243-2

Doblas-Miranda, E., Rovira, P., Brotons, L., Martínez-Vilalta, J., Retana, J., Pla,  M. and Vayreda, J. 2013. Soil carbon stocks and their variability across the forests, shrublands and grasslands of peninsular Spain. Biogeosciences; 10:8353–8361.