Diego is developing a project between the Schools of Agriculture and Food Sciences (Prof Peer Schenk, Dr Skye Thomas-Hall) and Biological Sciences (Prof Hugh Possingham and Dr Hawthorne Beyer), which aims to explore the relationships between biofuel production and conservation of biodiversity in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. This project involves the selection of suitable areas for the location of micro-algae systems for biofuel production, while minimizing environmental impacts.

His research experience focuses in forest tropical ecology, and includes the exploration of the relationships between diversity, plant functional traits (dispersal systems) and ecological gradients in Neotropical forests. He has elaborated plant inventories; developed land-use maps for decision making based on remote sensing imagery; and proposed connectivity networks for the persistence of native mammals in transformed landscapes.