Updated on April 30, 2008            versão em português

                       Publications (pdf)

Graduate students

                                                Graduate Programs

Teaching

Education

·  B.Sc., Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil, 1983.

·  M.Sc., Ecology, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP, Brasil, 1989.

·  Ph.D., Systematics and Ecology, University of Kansas, USA, 1995.

Research Interests

Interactions between populations, and their dynamics in assemblages. The theory and methods of both population and community ecology are relevant, including habitat selection, movement patterns of individuals and their perceptual range. These results are being applied to understand effects of human disturbances in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, such as habitat fragmentation and the functional connectivity between populations in a landscape of structurally isolated habitat remnants.

In population ecology, my studies have focused mainly (1) interactions between individual movements and the spatial dynamics of populations, (2) mechanisms of population regulation and species interactions, and (3) effects of body size and spatial scale on habitat selection and individual movement. These studies were carried out with small mammals, in collaboration with Dr. Rui Cerqueira. We are being able to determine seasonal and multiannual determinants of the dynamics of small mammal populations, and their space use habits. Effects human disturbances on small mammal - local (habitat disturbance) and global (climate change) - can be evaluated based on this long term study of their populations. 

In community ecology, I have studied species interactions based on estimates of realized and fundamental niche. In collaboration with Drs. Carlos E. V. Grelle, Judith Fiszon, and Rui Cerqueira, we have also studied human and biological factors affecting species diversity of small mammals in assemblages, particularly in the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes of Brazil. 

My students and I have tracked small mammals with spool-and-line devices, which allowed us to map the path of each individual and to relate it to the dynamics of populations. Another application of the spool-and-line method is the determination of the perceptual range of prefered habitat by individuals. The functional connectivity between local populations in a heterogeneous landscape is being evaluated based on the estimates of perceptual range. 

During my PhD, I studied the ecomorphology of arboreal locomotion in two neotropical marsupials. The same performance tests were applied to other species to understand the evolution of locomotory performance in the group. Hypotheses about adaptive and allometric effects are being tested with phylogenetic comparative methods. 

I have also studied other animal groups, such as snails and primates. 

Teaching

Undergradute:

B. Sc. in Biological Sciences, Instituto de Biologia, UFRJ:

    ·  Ecologia Básica

    ·  Projeto em Ecologia  (Bacharelado em Ecologia)

    ·  Ecologia das Adaptações Animais (Bacharelado em Ecologia)

 

B. Sc in Environmetal Engeneering, Escola Politécnica, UFRJ:

    ·  Ecologia Geral

Graduate School:

Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, UFRJ  (Graduate Program in Ecology)

    ·  Ecologia das Adaptações: Métodos Comparativos em Ecologia 

          (Ecology of Adaptations: Comparative Methods in Ecology)

    ·  Redação Científica na Linha Inglesa (Scientific Writing)  

 

Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Museu Nacional da UFRJ  (Graduate Program in Zoology, Museu Nacional)

    ·  Estratégias Adaptativas em Mamíferos (Adaptive Strategies in Mammals)

        

Links to Graduate Programs

	PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM ECOLOGIA. UFRJ
	MUSEU NACIONAL / UFRJ

 

Publications