Current members of our lab

Prof. Dr. Diogo B. Provete

Principal Investigator (PI)

  My CV (in English) | Lattes CV | My Academic Tree

​I obtained my Bachelor's in Biological Sciences at the Federal Univeristy of Alfenas (UNIFAL) in 2006, and my Master's degree in Animal Biology at the São Paulo State University (UNESP) in 2010. I earned in 2015 a PhD. in Ecology and Evolution from the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Brazil. I then spent 6 months as a guest Post-doctoral fellow at the Antonelli's lab in the Universty of Gothenburg, Sweden, and then 8 months as a FAPESP post doc fellow at the Federal University of São Carlos at Sorocaba, Brazil in the lab of Fernando R Silva. I joined the Institute of Biosciences of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) in September 2017, as an Assistant Professor.

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Marcos Rafael Severgnini 

PhD Candidate (PPG Ecologia e Conservação)

In his PhD project, Marcos is trying to understand the role eco-evolutionary dynamics play in determining phenotypic and life history  traits of frog populations along urban gradients in tropical cities. In his master's, he was primarily interested in testing for differences in morphospace of tadpoles inhabiting streams and ponds in the Neotropics. He used a variety of analytical approaches, including Geometric Morphometrics and phylogenetic comparative methods.

Ana Paula Andreazzi

PhD Student (PPG Biologia Animal)

Ana Paula is interested in understanding how the urban ecosystem, and especially the Urban Heat Island, is changing phenotypic traits and biochemical aspects of the honey of Stingless Bees. Her results will have potential implications for how global change is impacting bees in the Tropics. She joined the lab in mid 2024.

Daiene L. Hokama Souza

PhD Student (PPG Ecologia e Conservação)

Daiene is interested in applying ecoacoustic techniques to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of frog metacommunities in the Pantanal and surrounding plateaus. She'll be adapting a model developed using Machine Learning  techniques for birds, such as Convoutional Neural Networks, to identify frog species from their advertisement calls. Her project involves newly-developed multivariate methods to understand spatio-temporal dynamics in metacommunities.

Leandro B Menezes

Master Student (PPG Ecologia & Conservação)

Leandro is primarily interested in how urban ecosystems - and their associated environmental changes - are influencing metacommunity assembly rules by altering phenotypic traits of species. He's using frogs as a model organism to test the relative role of intra- vs interspecific phenotypic variation changes throughout the urban gradient, and if common ancestry play a role in it.

Past members or co-advised students

Dr. Matheus T. Moroti

former PhD Student (PPG Ecologia & Conservação)

Matheus was interested in the evolutionary and ecological factors in shaping the current diversity of vertebrates in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. He used a combination of analytical techniques to tackle this question, including the tool box of functional diversity, phylogenetic comparative methods, and modern biogeographic analysis.

Dr. Adriana C. Acero-Murcia

former PhD Student (PPG Ecologia & Conservação)

Adriana worked with ecomorphology of a community of bats in the Bodoquena Plateau, central Brazil. She was interested in understanding the ecological and evolutionary factors that affect community assembly patterns of bat species along gallery forests using geometric morphometrics for quantifying shape of skull and wings.

Dr. Philip T Soares

former PhD student (PPG Ecologia e Conservação)

Philip was interested in understanding how multiple threats - such as Bd fungus and invasive species - influenced distribution patterns of frogs in the Neotropics.

Gabriel Tirintan

Gabriel is interested in understanding the ecological and socio-economical factors and determine species richness and functional diversity of birads in Brazilian cities. He's using  macroecological methods along with big data obtained by citizen science projects, such as iNaturalist and eBird

Daniel Din Negre

Undergrad student

Daniel has a degree in Biology from the Fundação Santo André and is completed his Master's at the University of São Paulo (USP). His bachelor's monograph dealt with tadpole community structure at the Parque Natural Municipal Nascentes de Paranapiacaba, in Santo André, São Paulo. The main aims were:

(1) Evaluate the relative roles of abiotic factors in determining temporal and spatial distribution of species;
(2) To make an identification key to tadpoles found in streams and ponds.

Daniel can be contacted here.

Gabriela B. Leite

Undergrad student

Laura Bonin

Laura is currently working with the evolution of echolocation in bats worldwide. She's compiling a database of the presence and types of echolocationfor ~ 800 species of bats and using phylogenetic comparative methods to test for correlates of echolocation loss.