Guimaraes (Miudo) Lab

In my lab, we are exploring how ecological and evolutionary processes shape patterns of interaction among organisms and species. Our current work involve three research lines: (1) coevolutionary and ecological dynamics of networks of interacting species; (2) resource overlap among individuals within populations, and; (3) analytical tools for the study of complex networks.

Post-docs

Ana Paula Aprigio Assis

I am postdoc associate at the Departamento de Ecologia at Universidade de Sao Paulo (Fellowship: PNPD/CAPES).

I am interested in how complex phenotypes are shaped by the coevolutionary process. In my project, I will explore how phenotypic integration affect and is affected by the coevolutionary dynamics of populations of interacting species.

Guilherme Garcia

I am postdoc associate at the Departamento de Ecologia at Universidade de Sao Paulo .

In my project, I am exploring how within-population variation affects the evolution and coevolution of interacting species .

Students

Daniela Coelho

I am PhD student in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo.

I am interested in the evolution of aposematism and mimicry.

Lucas Camacho

I am a undergrad student at the Institute of Biological Sciences at USP.

I am interested in how coevolution affects phenotypic evolution in assemblages of competitors.

Marilia P. Gaiarsa

I am PhD student in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo.

In my doctoral research I am studying the ecological and evolutionary consequences of cascading effects in mutualistic networks. To explore this broad topic, I am employing tools from network and information theory with natural history. Fellowship: FAPESP.

Additional information at my website.

Alice

Alice joined the lab in 2012.

Alice is interested in toucans, flowers, hummingbirds, sacis, and wonder woman. She is now working on testing predictions of entropy-based theories, using her bedroom as studied system.

Marina

Marina joined the lab in 2015.

Marina is interested in whales, mermaids, perching birds, and in applications of Chaos Theory to the dynamics of toy models.

Technicians

Lucas Medeiros

Lucas is a lab technician working with computational tasks in my lab (fellowship: FAPESP). Before working as a lab technician, Lucas studied how interaction intimacy affects the modular organization of mutualistic networks (Bachelor's thesis in Biology, 2013-2014, fellowship: FAPESP) and how species coevolve in mutualistic networks under the processes of the Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution (Master's in Ecology, 2015-2017, fellowship: FAPESP).

We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?

Gustavo Burin Ferreira

I am PhD student in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo.

In my PhD project, my aim is to study the role of diet in the diversification dynamics of birds. Furthermore, I want to understand the role speciation and extinction rates on the building of plant-bird networks. Supervisor: Tiago Quental. Fellowship: FAPESP.

Irina Birskis Barros

Irina did her MSc student in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo (2017, Fellowship: CNPq). She studied how evolution and coevolution shape phenotypic patterns in species-rich assemblages of mimetic species.

Lucas Nascimento

Lucas worked as a research assistant in my lab (2015 to 2017). He studied how megafauna-plant interactions shape plant traits. He is now at the graduate program at USP under Mathias Pires's supervision.

Rafael L. G. Raimundo

Rafael finished his PhD in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo in 2015 (Fellowship: FAPESP) and he worked as a postdoc associate in my lab from 2015 to January of 2017 (Fellowship: FAPESP). He used different modelling approaches and natural history information to explore how multiple interactions such as competition and mutualism shape diversification in interacting species.He is now professor in Evolutionary Ecology at Universidade Federal da Paraiba

Additional information at his website.

Roberta Bonaldo
                       
                     

Roberta worked as a post-doc at my lab from 2013 to 2016. Her work focused on how interactions among fish species are organized in coral reefs and how this organization is altered by human activities. Fellowship: FAPESP.

Cecilia Andreazzi

Cecilia finished her PhD in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo in 2016 (Fellowship: CAPES). She combined empirical data, adaptive networks, and evolutionary models to explore the coevolutionary dynamics among exploiters and victims in species-rich assemblages. She was a visiting student at Carlos Melian's Lab at the Center for Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, Switzerland. After finishing her PhD, Cecilia moved back to the Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz, where she works as a researcher.

Vinicius Bastazini

I co-supervised Vinicius in his PhD in Ecology at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul(2015, supervisor: Valerio Pillar, Fellowship: CAPES). He investigated statistical tools for the analysis of ecological networks, using phylogenetic and ecological data.

Julia Astegiano

Julia worked as postdoc at my lab from 2011 to 2015 (Fellowship: FAPESP). In her project, she explored how plant reproductive traits determine the persistence of plant-pollinator interactions in human-altered landscapes. She was a visiting researcher at Cheptou's Lab at Centre d Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Montpellier. She left my lab to become a researcher at CONICET, Argentina.

Danilo Muniz

I co-supervised Danilo in his PhD in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo (2015, supervisor: Glauco Machado, Fellowship: FAPESP). He explored how sexual networks are affected by resource availability and the spatial organization.

Flavia M. D. Marquitti

Flavia was my first student. She did her MSc at Unicamp (2011) and finished her PhD in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo in 2015 (Fellowship: FAPESP). She combined empirical data, game theory, and spectral graph theory to explore how cheaters of mutualistic and aposematic species may affect ecology and evolution of ecological interactions. She was a visiting student at Simon Levin's Lab at Princeton and at Jorge Pacheco's lab at ATP Group, University of Lisbon, Portugal. After finishing her PhD, Flavia joined Marcus Aguiar's lab at Unicamp.

Additional information at her website.

Esther Sebastian-Gonzalez

Esther was a postdoc associate at my lab from 2012 to 2014. Her work at Sao Paulo integrated spatial ecology and species networks, exploring how interactions between plants and their frugivores vary geographically. She also was a visiting researcher at Rodolfo Dirzo's Lab at Stanford University. Fellowship: FAPESP.

Additional information at her website.

Mariana Morais Vidal

Mari finished her PhD in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo in 2014 (Fellowship: FAPESP). She investigated how habitat loss and fragmentation would affect mutualisms between plants and fruit-eating birds and mammals.She was a visiting student at Miguel Verdu's lab at Universitat de Valencia. As a postdoc asssociate, Mari joined Jean Paul's lab at USP to study conservation of ecological interactions.

Kate Maia

Kate finished her MSc in Ecology at Universidade de Sao Paulo in 2014 (Fellowship: FAPESP). She investigated how social behavior shapes the role of species in pollination networks. She was a visiting student at Jens Olesen's lab at Aarhus University, Denmark. Kate joined the Jane Memmott's Lab at University of Bristol, UK.

Mathias M. Pires

I co-supervised Mathias in his MSc dissertation (Unicamp, 2008-2010, Fellowship: FAPESP) and supervised his PhD in Ecology at USP (2010-2014,Fellowship: FAPESP). He used empirical data on the diet of predators and prey, niche modelling and metrics developed in the study of the physics of complex networks to investigate how megafauna extinctions were modulated by ecological networks. He was a visiting student at Paul Koch's lab at UC - Santa Cruz. Mathias won the Premio Capes de Teses as the best PhD thesis on biodiversity in Brazil. After finishing his PhD, Mathias joined Tiago Quental's Lab at USP to investigate the dynamics of diversification of American mammals.

Additional information at his website.

Paula "Paulinha" Lemos

Paulinha finished her MSc in Ecology at USP in 2013 (Fellowship: FAPESP). She combined empirical data, optimal foraging models, and network approach to investigate how competition affect niche partitioning within populations. She was co-supervised by Marcio Araujo (Unesp) and she was a visiting student at Tim Tinker and John Estes's lab at UC-Santa Cruz. After finishing the MSc, Paulinha joined Marcus Aguiar's Lab at Unicamp to work with theoretical biology.

Additional information at her website.

Natalia Camps

Natalia was technician in our lab for a couple of months at end 2012 early 2013. She left the lab to work at Mamiraua, Amazon Forest.

Wesley Dattilo

I co-supervised Wesley in his MSc at Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation Graduate Program at UFMT (supervisor: Thiago J. Izzo). He studied the underlying processes shaping networks formed by protective ants and plants. After finishing his MSc (2012) he did a PhD at Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico. He is now researcher at the Instituto de Ecologia, Xalapa, Mexico.

Additional information at his website

Justin D. Yeakel

I was the external member of Justin's committee at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC's members of the committee: Paul Koch, Marc Mangel and Jim Estes). In 2012, Justin finished his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology exploring multiple (and awesome!) aspects of predator-prey networks. He is now a professor at University of California - Merced.

Additional information at his website

Mauricio Cantor

I co-supervised Mauricio in his MSc at Ecology Graduate Program at UFSC (supervisor: Paulo C. Simoes-Lopes). He studied the social organization of dolphins Sotalia guianensis. After finishing his MSc (2011) he started a PhD at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.

Additional information at his website

Jean P. Gibert

Jean was a member of our lab when he was a MSc. student in Ecology at Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay. He was a member of our lab from 2010 to 2011. He studied how spatial organization might affect the evolutionary dynamics of coevolved antagonisms. He got a nice opportunity and moved to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a PhD student.

Additional information at his website.

Julieta Genini

I co-supervised Juli in her PhD in Botany at Unesp - Rio Claro (2008 - 2011) on seasonal patterns in plant-pollinator interactions (supervisor: Patricia Morellato). After finished her PhD, Juli moved to Germany where she is now living.

Helen Carlimbanchi

Helen studied at our lab from 2009 to2010. At the time, she studied about cleaning interactions among fish. She was attending an undergrad course in Earth Sciences  & Environmental Education at USP, Brazil. She left our lab to search her dream of working with environmental and science education.

Maria Clara Oleski Amatuzzi

I co-supervised Maria Clara in her MSc dissertation at Ecology Graduate Program at Unicamp (supervisor: Wesley R. Silva ) in 2009. She studied the fragility of a plant-frugivore network using numerical simulations.