Population Ecology and Conservation Lab
Demography, dynamics and distribution
Murilo Guimarães – Main Investigator
I am a wildlife biologist with a focus on population ecology. My primary research interest lies in understanding how anthropogenic disturbances affect wildlife populations. Currently, I serve as an Assistant Professor at the Universidade Federal do Piauí, where I conduct research and teach in the fields of ecology and statistics.
Current lab members
Undergrad students
Isabel Alves
Isabel is a herpetologist in training. For her project, she investigated the dynamics of urban-dwelling amphibian species and examined how urbanization influences their persistence.
Mateus Martins
Using field data, Mateus is investigating the consequences of ignoring detection probability and spatial dependency when estimating habitat use. His work aims to highlight potential biases in ecological inference that arise from simplified modeling approaches.
Grad students
Agnaildo Sampaio
Guido is a Master's student investigating the effects of urbanization on the abundance of the grey cracker butterfly, a species known to thrive in urban environments. To achieve this, he is applying abundance N-mixture models that account for detection errors and spatial autocorrelation, providing a robust framework for understanding how urban landscapes influence butterfly populations
Former lab members
Luan Sousa
Luan investigated habitat use by Biblidinae butterflies, a group of frugivorous species, using occupancy modeling. His study focused on assessing how spatial and temporal predictors influenced both occupancy and detection probabilities. Fieldwork was conducted within the largest green area in Teresina, providing insights into butterfly preferences in an urban landscape.
Gustavo Lopes Ribeiro
Gustavo is an enthusiast bird-watcher currently studying how edge effect influences generalist and specialist tyrant flycatchers in different fragments of urban forests in the city of Teresina-PI
Regina Guimarães Silva
Regina is interested in Population Ecology and Conservation. Currently, she is working with the invasion of the neem tree in urban green spaces from Northeast Brazil.
Érico Moreira de Miranda (co-supervised by Murilo)
During his Master, Érico investigated the effects of climatic seasonality on the population dynamics of the sand lizard (Liolaemus arambarensis), using Integrated Population Models. He was under the supervision of Dr. Laura Verrastro.
Guilherme Oyzarzabal da Silva
Guilherme is a biologist from Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. During his PhD, he studied the effects of cattle graze on abundance and occupancy of orb-weaver spiders.
Amanda Schwarzbold Salviano
Amanda got her major in Marine Biology. She is passionate about sea turtles, and during her undergrad studies, she investigated the dynamics of sea turtle strandings, focusing on carcass persistence at the beaches of Rio Grande do Sul. She was co-supervised by Maurício Tavares.
Debora Wolff Bordignon (co-supervised by Murilo)
Debora is a biologist interested in ecology and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. During her Master she investigated local determinants of the breeding habitat of the microendemic and critically endangered red-belly toad (Melanophryniscus admirabilis). Debora was under the supervision of Dr. Márcio Borges Martins.
Stephanie da Silva Silveira
Stephanie has a Master in Animal Biology. She studied the effects of the invasive bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) on native amphibian populations using co-occurrence hierarchical models.
Júlia Beduschi (co-supervised by Murilo)
During her Master´s in Ecology, Júlia assessed survival rates and abundance of amphibian populations subjected to road-kills. She is a member of the Railway and Road ecology group and was supervised by Dr. Andreas Kindel.
Arthur Schramm de Oliveira (co-supervised by Murilo)
During his Master´s, Arthur investigated the effects of Pinus plantations on occupancy probability of the endemic whiptail lizard, Contomastix vacariensis, under supervision of Dr. Laura Verrastro.
Matheus Kingeski Ferreira (co-supervised by Murilo)
Matheus was a Master student working with the distribution of the Franciscana, an endangered dolphin from the Atlantic Ocean. He was under the supervision of Dr. Márcio Borges Martins.
Karoline Gilioli
During her Master´s, Karoline lifted many rocks to determine the fine-scale distribution of the elusive and cool red-belly toad (Melanophryniscus pachyrhynus).
André Vicente Liz
André was an IMAE student at the Animal Biology Graduate Program. During his Master´s, he investigated the effects of seasonality and thermal environments on the ecology of the sand lizard, Liolaemus arambarensis. He was under the supervision of Dr. Laura Verrastro and co-supervision of Murilo.
Natália Dallagnol Vargas
Natália did her Master on the effects of aposematic signals of the red-belly-toad (Melanophryniscus cambaraensis) against predators. She was under the supervision of Dr. Márcio Borges Martins.
Lídia Martins
Lídia got her Master in Animal Biology at UFRGS, working with population demography of the sand lizard Liolaemus arambarensis. Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology at INPA-Manaus.