Education

2022 - Ghent University, Belgium

Visiting researcher

Projeto: The role of wetting events on drought resistance and resilience of tomato plants

Supervisor: PhD Kathy Steppe

2018 - 2022 – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

PhD in Ecology and Evolution

Thesis: The ecological role of leaf wetness events in the plant response to drought: functional responses between ecosystems and climate scenarios 

Advisor: PhD Bruno Henrique Pimentel Rosado

2015 – 2017 – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil.

MS Plant Biology,

Dissertation: Functional responses of caatinga woody plants to rainfall and chronic anthropogenic disturbance.

Advisor:  PhD Marcelo Tabarelli

2010 – 2015 – Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Brazil.

BS Biology,

Bachelor’s thesis: Morphoanatomy plasticity of leaves and roots and ecophysiological aspects of a hemiepiphyte Bromeliaceae in the Restinga.

Advisor: PhD Camilla Rozindo Dias Milanez

2013 – 2014 - Università di Pisa, Italy (Advisor: PhD Lorenzo Peruzzi)

Internship at taxonomy and Plant Cytogenetic lab - project title "Reproduction of Symphytum tanaicense (Boraginaceae)" (150 hours).

Manuscripts (in preparation, under review) 

Moraes, Y.C.; Matos, I.S.; Zorger, B.B.;  Rosado, B.H.P. How the use of multiple plant strategy schemes explains species growth rates in a seasonally dry ecosystem. For submission to Journal of Ecology (in preparation). 2025. 

Zorger, B.B; Oliveras, I; Rosado, B.H.P. Elevation and precipitation mediate leaf wetting benefits in plants – a global meta-analysis. For submission to Biotropica (in preparation). 2025.

Service

Reviewer: Scientia Plena (2019), Rodriguesia (2020) and Brazilian Journal of Botany (2022)

PhD dissertation committee

Domingues, T. F.; Ramos, D. M.; Pereira, R.A.S.; Aleixo, I. F.; Zorger, B. B.; Giacomin, L. L.. Participação em banca de Luiza Helena Menezes Cosme. Estratégias funcionais em árvores: Uma abordagem hidráulica. 2023. Tese (Doutorado em Biologia Comparada) - Universidade de São Paulo.

Undergraduate thesis committee

Zorger, B. B; Macedo, T. M. Yan Nunes Ferreira da Silva. Do simple and compound leaves differ in the vulnerability to drought? 2020. BS in biology - Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Portela, R. C. Q.; Manna, L. R.; Zorger, B. B. Raissa de Freitas Tiburtino. Variation in the plant vulnerability to drought across ontogeny: A hypothesis test of hydraulic limitation. 2020. BS in biology  – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

 Awards and Honors

2020 - I was selected to receive “Faperj nota 10” scholarship, a postgraduate grant received by students with great performance during PhD.

2017 - Honourable mention: Oral presentation of study “Functional responses of caatinga woody plants to rainfall and chronic anthropogenic disturbance” at XIII Congresso de Ecologia do Brasil, Sociedade de Ecologia do Brasil, Viçosa, MG, Brasil.

Teaching and mentoring experience

Lectures

2025 – Guest lecture – Climate change effects on ecosystems. Ecology of ecosystems. School of Biological Sciences. University of Utah.  

Mentoring experience

2023 - 2024 -  Lucy Engar. Exploring the relationships between leaf traits and heat vulnerability. Scientific Research Iniciative - SRI, undergraduate at University of Utah. Main supervisor.

2023 - 2024 - Sydney Gardner. The effect of atmospheric drought in temperate species during the summer. Scientific Research Iniciative - SRI, undergraduate at University of Utah. Main supervisor.

2018 – 2022 – Andressa Fraga Cotta. Vulnerability to drought in plants: Is the leaf water uptake from the fog able to revert the xylem embolism?  Undergraduate at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Co-supervisor.

2011 – 2013 - Teaching assistant at plant anatomy lab (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, 240 hours)

2010 – 2011 –Teaching assistant at plant anatomy lab (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, 120 hours)

Outreach 

2023 - STEMCAP (linktr.ee/stemcap_uofu) - Plant adaptations to deal with drought - Science right now (workshops to Youth-In-Custody (YIC))

Short-courses

2020 - Zorger, B.B; Almeida, L.C. What do wetness traits tell us about plants? A theoretical and experimental approach from leaf to  ecosystem. X Simbioma, Instituto Nacional da Mata Atlântica, ES, Brazil (8 hours).

2020 - Brito, C.R.; Zorger, B.B . Introduction to functional ecology: Functional traits as descriptors of nature. I Simpósio de Ecologia e Conservação: Integrando Ciência e Sociedade, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil (6 hours).

Evaluation bachelor thesis 

2020 - Edilaine Gomes Santos. Environmental education and the ecological importance of bees: a study about books. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

2020 - Raquel da Silva Costa. Paraíba do Sul river and science teaching: A study about students of  Municipal Surubi school. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

2020 - Andrey Silva Santos. Understanding the relationship between local ecological knowledge and illegal sewage dumping in 

urban rivers. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

2020 – Dalila dos Santos Diniz. Teacher of science and the new BNCC: challenges under changes over the last years of elementary school. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Oral and poster presentations

Zorger, B. B. Why doesn't Cactaceae assemblage respond to precipitation gradient? Poster presentation at XIII Congresso de Ecologia do Brasil e III International Symposium of Ecology and Evolution, 2017, Viçosa, MG, Brasil.

Zorger, B. B.; Cianciaruso, M.; Queiroz, R.; Tabarelli, M. 2017. Functional responses of caatinga woody plants to rainfall and chronic anthropogenic disturbance. Oral presentation at XIII Congresso de Ecologia do Brasil e III International Symposium of Ecology and Evolution, Viçosa, MG , Brasil, 2017.

Zorger, B. B.; Pessoa, A.; Lacerda, A. C.; Rouxinol, J. A.; Rodrigues, R. Tabular roots affect seedling abundance in Tropical rainforest. Poster presentation at 67º Congresso Nacional de Botânica, XXXVI ERBOT e 8ª Jornada Capixaba De Botânica, 2016, Vitória, ES, Brasil.

Zorger, B. B.; Milanez, C. R. D. Po Allelopathic potential of Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf (Poaceae) in germination and development of Panicum Maximum jacq. (Poaceae) and Linum Usitatissimum L. (LINACEAE)”). Poster presentation at 66º Congresso Nacional de Botânica, 2015, Santos, SP. 2015.

Lima-Junior, F. C.; Dias, M. R. P.; Zorger, B. B.; Flores, A. P.; Martins, C.; Viadiu, X. A. Thermal response of arboreal and terrestrial ants in the Caatinga. 2015. (Apresentação de Trabalho/Simpósio). Oral presentation at XXII Simpósio de Mirmecologia, Ilhéus, BA, Brasil, 2015.

Zorger, B. B.; Milanez, C. R. D. Morphoanatomical strategies of Billbergia euphemiae E. Morren (Bromeliaceae) in Restinga at Paulo César Vinha State Park (ES)”. Poster presentation at XXII Jornada de Iniciação cientifica da UFES, 2012, Vitória - ES. Anais da XXII Jornada de Iniciação cientifica da UFES, Vitória, ES, Brasil, 2012.

Courses attended

          2023 - 2023 -  Phys-Fest 4 (five days)

 2021 - 2021 - Oxford School of Climate Change - Hilary

  Oxford Climate Society (nine weeks)

 2015 – 2015 - Fieldwork course: Ecology of Amazon Rainforest (120 hours).

Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, INPA, Brasil.

2015 – 2015 - Fieldwork course: Ecology and Conservation of Caatinga (120 hours). Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, UFPE, Brasil.

2015 – 2015 – Statistical applied to Botany (60 hours).

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, UFPE, Brasil.

2015 – 2015 - Functional Diversity B: Practical (30 hours).

Universidade Federal de Goiás, UFG, Brasil.

2015 – 2015 - Functional Diversity A: Theory (30 hours).

Universidade Federal de Goiás, UFG, Brasil.

2013 – 2013 - Italian course (80 hours).

Università di Pisa, UNIPI, Itália.

2011 – 2012 - English Course (153 hours).

Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, UFES, Brasil.

2011 – 2011 - Microscopy Course (2 hours).

Instituto Federal do espírito Santo, IFES, Brasil.

2010 – 2010 - Mutagenicity e antimutagenicity of plant products (2 hours).

Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, UFES, Brasil.

2010 – 2010 - Plant adaptation to extreme environments (8 hours). Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, UFES, Brasil

Languages

Portuguese (mother language)

English (advanced)

Italian (advanced)

References

PhD Luiza T. Aparecido

Assistant professor

School of Biological Sciences

The university of Utah (US)

PhD Ilaine Silveira Matos

Lecturer

School of Biological Sciences

The University of Adelaide (Australia)

PhD Bruno Henrique Pimentel Rosado

Associate Professor

Department of Ecology

Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

PhD Marcelo Tabarelli 

Associate Professor

Department of Plant Biology 

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco  (Brazil)

Lattes curriculum

http://lattes.cnpq.br/9072359672416344