Bruna Lab Home Page

Postdoctoral Researchers

Paul Gagnon (pgagnon[AT]ufl.edu)
Postdoctoral Researcher
http://www.wec.ufl.edu/faculty/pgagnon/

Paul has a Master's Degree from Yale and a PhD in Plant Biology from LSU. He has done research on topics ranging from plant use and indigenous identity to how disturbance influences the demogrpahy of bamboo. He is interested in stochastic plant demography.

Heather Passmore (hpassmo[AT]gmail.com)
Postdoctoral Researcher

Heather is a plant community ecologist with a PhD in Plant Biology from LSU. She is investigating the effect of forest fragmentation in central Amazonia on the structure of ant-plant mutualist networks.

Charlotte Lee (ctlee[AT]bio.fsu.edu)
Postdoctoral Researcher

Charlotte is a theoretical ecologist with a Ph.D. from UC Davis. Together with Brian Inouye (FSU), we are working to understand the dynamics ant-plant mutualists, especially the mechanisms underlying the persistence of inferior mutualists partners.

Graduate Students

Antônio Aguiar Neto (patriota[AT]ufl.edu)
Ph.D. Student - WEC

Antônio earned his BS and MS degrees at Brazil's Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. He is interested in the population dynamics of trees in the Atlantic rain forests of Brazil's northeast.

Christine Lucas (chlucas[AT]ufl.edu)
Ph.D. Student - WEC

Christine graduated from Vassar and most recently conducted research in Varzea forests. She is interested in seed dispersal and forest regeneration.

Cris Follman Jurinitz
Ph.D. Student - U. de São Paulo

She is interested in comparing tree demography in primary and regenerating Atlantic rain forests. I co-advise Cris with Alexandre Oliveira.

Ernane Vieira Neto (vieiraneto[AT]ufl.edu)
Ph.D. Student - WEC

Ernane completed his BS and MS degrees at the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia. His PhD will investigate facotrs influencing the demography and dynamics of leaf-cutter ants (Atta).

Undergraduate Researchers: Join us! Send Emilio and email if interested.

Visiting Scholars

Fabiane Moreira Mundim Ribeiro

Fabiane recently completed her Master's thesis at the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, where she studied the consequences of hervbivory by leaf-cutter ants for Cerrado tree phenology and reproduction.

Field Research Team Leaders

Paulo Rubim
Heliconia Project, Manaus

Paulo completed his BS and MSc at UNESP where he studied the phenology of Atlantic forest tree species. He is factors influencing plant distribution at multiple spatial scales.

Emilia Zoppas de Albuquerque
Ant-Plant Project, Manaus

Emilia joined our lab after completing her BS and MS at UNISINOS, where she studied factors influencing ant community structire. She is currently studying how herbivory influences the colony structure of mutualist ant partners.

Laura Vivian Barbosa
Cerrado Plant Demography Project, Uberlandia

Laura has a BS and MS from the Universidade Federal de Uberlanida. Her interests are in nutrient cycling in the Cerrado.

Lab Associates

Diego Andrés Delamônica Bruna
Lab Productivity Monitor

Diego is focusing on dinosaur taxonomy, with his foci being (1) the use of tail features to resolve the Ankylosauridae and (2) a refusal to acknowledge the synonymizing of Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus. He has also developed a fondness for Vivaldi and the Brazilian duo Palavra Cantada. His father laments the passage of the Zeca Pagodinho phase. His mother does not.

Gustavo Cauê Delamônica Bruna
Lab Productivity Monitor

Gustavo has been here only a short time but is already showing a predisposition for studying the behavior of nocturnal species. His parents are breathing a sigh of relief, in large part because he has reinforced our belief that the statistical concept of regression to the mean can be applied to the prevalence of colic in babies. Next stop: Rio!

The Rogues Gallery: Lab Alumni and Visitors

Stella Copeland, M.S. in WEC (2009)

Stella graduated in 2009. Her thesis was on how nitrogen enrichment and simulated changes in precipitation influenced the ecology of two Cerrado grasses.

Current Position: PhD student in Dr. Susan Harrison's Lab at UC Davis.

Irina Skinner, BS in WEC (2009)

Irina was a CALS University Scholar in our lab. Her sentior thesis was on the effect of nutrient enrichment on wiregrass, with field work conducted at the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station> Find out more about Irina at her website.

Current Position: MS Student in Dr. Rob Fletcher's Lab here at UF.

Thiago Izzo
Postdoctoral Researcher (2003-2008)

Thiago earned his Ph.D. in Ecology from the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia. He is interested in the ecology of ant-plant mutualisms.

Current Position: Professor of Ecology, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso.

Gwen Iacona, M.S. in WEC (2008)

MS Thesis Research: Seedling establishment along productivity gradients in Longleaf pine savannas

Current position: Biologist for the Florida Natural Areas Inventory.

Alana Vaz Ferreira, M.S. in Biology, U. Federal de Uberlandia (2007)

MS Thesis research: Seed predation by ants, birds, and rodents in Brazil's Cerrado

Current Position: Cadet in the State Police, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Ian Fiske, M.S. in WEC (2006)

MS Thesis Research: Sampling in plant demographic studies and implications for matrix model projections.

Current position: Ph.D. student in Statistics at NCSU.

Camila Castanho, Postgraduate Scholar (2006)

Camila recently completed her Master's degree at the Universidade de São Paulo, and came here in Spring 2006 to learn new techniques in ecosystem ecology.

Alexandre Oliveira, Sabbatical Visitor (2006)

Alexandre is a faculty member at the Universidade de São Paulo. He is a forest ecologist and is interested in plant demography who conduced sabbatical research here in Spring 2006.

Bia Nogueira, M.S. in Ecology, USP (2005)

MS Thesis Research: Plant regeneration in Amazonian secondary forests.

Current position: PhD Student at INPA.

Matt Trager, M.S. in SNRE (2006)

MS Thesis research: Effects of nutrient manipulation on ant-plant mutualisms.

Current position: Ph. D. Student at UF's McGuire Center for Lepidopteran Research.

David M. Lapola, BDFFP Intern (2001)

Current position: following an MS at INPE, David is now a PhD student at the Max-Planck Institut (Earth System Modelling Program).

Maria Rosa Darrigo, Head Technician (2002-2003)

Current Position: PhD student in Ecology at UNICAMP.

Olavo Nardy, BDFFP Intern & Senior Thesis Student (1999)

Sylvia Heredia, BDFFP Intern (2001).

Current Position: Ph.D. student at UC Riverside.

Ariadna Valentina Lopes (avflopes[AT]ufpe.br)
Sabbatical Visitor (2007)

Ariadna is a faculty member at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, where she specializes on plant reproductive biology. Learn more about her research here.

Selene Baez (sbaez[AT]ufl.edu)
Postdoctoral Researcher

Selene earned her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on plant community ecology and arid ecosystems. In addition to research on these topics conducted with long-term datasets, she is setting up a series of projects in longleaf pine savannas at the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station

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