NEWS

This year Sami and I were awarded a Global Partnership Engagement Fund to develop an Australia/UK research alliance to understand tree dieback from extreme heatwaves (GE051-25). This was an excellent opportunity to visit old friends and collaborators at both Bristol (Prof. Martin G De Kauwe) and Oxford (Dr Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérrez). About 8 years ago, I had the change to spend 6 months at Oxford as part of my PhD studies. It was such a great opportunity to be back and to bring along our daughter Dinizia to see where her parents first met!.

Good news! I have been award the University of Australia Barbara Kidman Fellowship is designed to support female academics to enhance and promote their career. This fellowship will allow me to strenghten my international collaborations in France, develop my sensor building skills and intrument my new Plant Ecophysiology lab.

I am delighted to announce that I have breen granted the Bert and Aileen Kollosche Research Grants Scheme from the Australian Plants Society of South Australia. This grant will support a new research project entitled "Growing old and tolerant: How does drought tolerance vary across life stages in Eucalyptus and Acacia trees?"

Congratulations to Jaclyn Wilmot which just won the Nature Foundation Honours grant. This grant will support Jaclyn's research on the factors affecting the fecundity and seed production of Maireana sedifolia, a dominant bush in many arid and semi-arid areas of Australian.

I spent two days at the Western Sydney University (WSU) visiting Prof. Brendan Choat Lab and the Hawkerbury Institute for the Environment (HIE). Besides presenting my work at the HIE seminar series, I got the chance to talk to amazing people, such as Profs. Rachael Gallagher, Ian Wrigth, Belinda Medlyn, and David Tissue. I also had the chance to visit the EucFACE experimental site, and to learn more about the optical technique (to obtain hydraulic vulnerability curves) and the droughtBoxe (to measure residual conductance). Thank you do much Prof. Choat for the invitation and the time spent with me! I hope to see you all soon at the Ecological Society of Australia conference 2025, in Adelaide.

It is with great pleasure that I inform that I am the new Lecturer of Botany at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. In this research and teaching continuing position, I will be able to finally realize my longlasting dream of leading my own research lab (the Plant Ecophysiology Lab). Stay tuned, because there are many great news coming soon...

It was wonderful to participate (for the first time) to the GRC meeting on plant vasculature. I have learnt so much from wonderful scientists from all around the world. The socials, accommodation and food were all amazing too. We even had lobster at our last dinner. Hooray!

Holidays!!! What a blessing to celebrate my 35th birthday with my family in my hometown. My parents, sister, brother, and niece finally have the chance to meet Dinizia. 

What a year!

I wish you all a great end of the year, and a 2024 full of good surprises.

After many months of housing hunting, we finally found our new sweet home. The house serious repairs... But the stunning sunsets, the proximity to the park/bike lanes, and the fruit bats flying across the sky every evening make this place worth it. 

Time flies! Dinizia is already turning 1 year old and I prepared for her a very species birthday with forest related decoration. My family in Brazil and Sami's falmily in the US all joined a video call to celebrate this unique moment and to sing Happy Birthday to Dinizia, the sweetest little part of Nature.

Today is Dinizia's first birthday and Nature gave her a very special present: two rainbows!!

Sami, Dinizia, and I just arrived at Darwin to attend the 2023 Ecological Society of Australia Conference. Both Sami and I will be presenting our work during oral sessions. Meanwhile, Dizinia is enjoying the nice weather and the Hotel's pool. 

Dinizia is ready for her first bike ride! 

Dinizia and I enjoying the Festa Junina organized by the Brazilian Association of South Australia (BASA). It is time to dance forro, eat lots of corn, and celebrate Brazilian culture. 

My little Dinizia finally had the chance to meet her grandparents that live in the US. She was all smiles. Next year it will be time to also meet my very big family in Brazil. I can't wait for it. <3

It is Dinizia's first Christmas. It is a shame that we do not have our family close by to celebrate this magical moment. But, we tried our best to enjoy the holidays. Dinizia seems enchated by the Christmas Reindeer. Merry Christmas to all!

My little baby Dinizia was born today at 5:10pm with 3kg and 51cm length. It was a 24 h long childbirth with an episiotomy and forceps. But, we are all good now. Dinizia's name is a tribute to the tallest known tree species in the Brazilian Amazon Forest: Dinizia excelsa. Not long ago Dinizia's father was in a expedition in the north Amazon to find such giant trees. I hope Dinizia grows tall and strong as her namesake trees.

After presenting some preliminary results of our University of California Botanical Garden trait-campaign, it was time to enjoy the nice summer weather at Berkeley and the company of our lab-mates.

Check it out our new paper on Journal of Ecology, where we discuss the importance of the atmospheric resource-axis for ground‐rooted plants. In this review paper we:

1) Examine the different strategies by which ground-rooted plants directly or indirectly obtain  resources from occult precipitation events (e.g. dew, fog, light rain);

2) Discuss how the use of such atmospheric resources may promote spatiotemporal niche segregation, contributing to  shape species distribution and abundance within plant communities;

3) Explore how climate and land-use changes in the hydrological environment (soil  and atmosphere) may affect species-specific hydrological niches, potentially altering species' relative abundance and distribution within communities;

4) Identify critical knowledge gaps that future studies should address to effectively expand the plant hydrological niche framework. 

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.

What a wonderful surprise...I am going to be a mom of a baby girl. This first trimester of pregnancy has been extremely challenging because I developed hyperemisis gravidarum (a severe form of morning sickness), but I am hopeful that these symptoms will subside soon and I will be able to enjoy this unique experience of motherhood.

Time to take a break from my research and enjoy my huge family in Brazil :)

After more than 2 years and half without seeing my family in person, I am finally flying to Brazil for a deserved vacation time. I am counting the minutes to hug my relatives, to play with my niece, and to dive in the warm Sergipe beaches. 

This fancy green machine is a LICOR 6800, which I am using to measure the photosynthetic and transpiration rates of different plants at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. In simple words this machine is able to determine how much water plants are losing in exchange for CO2 to produce sugar.

Pizza to celebrate the end of our successfull trait campaign at the Botanical Gardens at Berkeley. After 8 months of hard work we finished measuring hydraulic and mechanical traits on more than 120 species of angiosperms and ferns. 

Lisa Garcia, our REU 2021 summer student, is returning to New Mexico. We had a special lab dinner to say goodbye to such friendly, hard-working, and adventurous person ! We wish you all the best and thank you for your great contribution to our research project.

After so many months of lockdown was very nice to hike with our students and lab guests up to the Claremont hill during a sunny and warm Friday. Lots of nice talks and views! Thank you to everyone who joined this lab social event :)

This is a incredibly fun website that allows you to explore the connections among scientific papers in a visual graph. In this figure you can see the connections among papers on the Foliar Water Uptake theme. This can be extremely useful when you start learning a new topic in science. To learn more and to create your on paper connections, click here.

What a pleasure to be back to the Department of Ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (where I accomplished my PhD) to be part of the committee that evaluated Yan Moraes' dissertation. In his outstanding dissertation, he evaluated the relationships between different plant strategies classifications (CSR, Physiological and Tcrit) and their capacity to predict plant growth in 10 species of the "Campos de Altitude".  Dissertation approved with distinction!! Congratulations to both Yan and his excellent supervisor PhD Bruno Rosado.

As a Postdoctoral researcher, I am now in a position where I am both a mentor for some undergrad students in our lab and a mentee for my PI Ben Blonder.  While good mentors are characterized by their accessibility; empathy, open-mindedness, consistency, patience; honesty and savvy, good mentees  should seek for foresight, proactivity, probing, respect, gratitude, reciprocation and humility.

To learn more about how to mentor and to be mentored I recommend those two resources below:

-Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientifıc Management for Postdocs and New Faculty.  Chapter 5: Mentoring and being mentored;

- Entering Mentoring

Both resources are available at : https://www.hhmi.org/science-education/programs/resources

My husband and I are finally enjoying our lovely honeymoon at the Southeastern California beaches. The ocean, the sun, the seagulls, the sand, the tar... tar?!! Oh! no... Why can we seen so much tar at the beach? The first thought is there must have been an oil spill here. But, this is not necessarily true. We discover that most of the tar accumulation in southern California  beaches arises from natural sources. Lear why here. 

My Meggnolia pascoalense was one of the pieces to won the Egg decoration contest at the Macrosystem Ecology Lab in Berkeley. My award should be a bar of dark chocolate, but when I get to the lab to receive my deserved prize... someone else has already eaten the whole bar!!!

For the second year in a row I am celebrating my birthday in the middle of the Covid pandemic! I am glad to be alive and vaccinated. My birthday wish is that the vaccine arrives for everyone soon and hugs and kisses are allowed again <3 <3

It was a simple ceremony at the Contra Costa courthouse, where the groom could not kiss the bride at the end as both were wearing masks to protect against the Covid.

Journal of Ecology has a blog where they post a short history about their  recently published papers. Check out my post there about the "Plant eco-physiological strategies of response to drought and the future of the “Campos de Altitude” .

Glad to share that our paper "Deciphering the stability of grassland productivity in response to rainfall manipulation experiments" has been recommended on @F1000Prime as being of special significance in Ecology!!!! What a pleasure to have Dr. Alan Knapp reading and recommending our paper :D

You can access our metanalysis at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/geb.13039

and the F1000 re

Today we went to the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, and we were impressed by the huge and diverse collection they preserve  there (16,865 acessions in 294 different plant families).  We are very enthusiastic about starting a collaboration with the UCBG, from where we are going to collect some of our leaf samples to obtain both ecophysiological and venation architectural traits.  Moving forward and up the hill!

The Macrosystem Ecology Lab has moved to California, so now I am developing my Postdoctoral research at the UC Berkeley.  So excited to work in one of the best ranked universities in USA and surrounded by renowned plant ecophysiologists!

After a 30h-long journey, I finally arrived at the Arizona State University (ASU) to start my new postdoc at the Macrosystem Ecology Lab, supervised by Prof. Ben Blonder. Many challenges ahead! Including surviving the 44°C of this beautiful and desertic place.

Time to say goodbye to Rio de Janeiro and all my precious friends that live there. Those more than 7 years living in RJ really changed me forever and for better. Hope to back soon and say that ... O Rio de Janeiro continua lindo!

Today I was pleased to share some results of my thesis with professors and students of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. I showed them how different plants species from the Brazilian mountain grasslands can deal with droughts and how the intensification of  drought events predicted for the next decades could affect grasslands structure and functioning.

My last fieldwork at the mountainous grasslands of the Itatiaia National Park, and I witnessed the vegetation where I have been working for the last four year burning! That sad view made us wondering about the effects of such human induced fires on grasslands plant species. Are fires a threat for those endemic species or a essential disturbance that hinders grasslands replacement by montane forest? 

Discover how plants from Brazilian mountain grasslands can deal with droughts and contemplate the incredible functional diversity of such species by accessing our "Plant functional guide of the Itatiaia National Park (PNI, RJ, Brazil) ". The bulletin is available here, and here you can download the functional guide.

That is perhaps my last contribution before leaving the Plant Ecology Lab at the UERJ (RJ, Brazil)! The triangular shape and the three primary colours in the logo are a reference to the CSR triangle theory, which proposes that plants can exhibit different proportions of three primary ecological strategies: competition (C - indicated by the red color), stress tolerance (S - green), and ruderality (R - blue). The water droplets, the cloud, and the flame are a reference to the studies developed in the LEV / UERJ that aim to evaluate the response of plants to drought, fog and fire. The flame at the top of the triangle also alludes to the UERJ symbol - a torch. The leaves at the base of the triangle represent the main organ used to obtain plant functional (vegetative) traits. The flower, seeds, and seedling indicate the importance of measuring functional regenerative traits too. The algae indicate the influence of the phylosphere on those traits. Such elements were also chosen to represent the four types of vegetation where researchers of LEV have developed their studies: rock outcrops (flower of Barbacenia purpurea); Atlantic Forests (seedling of Euterpe edulis); mountain grasslands (leaf of Baccharis pseudomyriochepala); and Amazon Forests (leaf of Amphirrhox longifolia). Finally, the electronic circuit superimposed on the UERJ acronym, refers to the importance of sensors to evaluate how plants respond to environmental conditions. The logo has a sober and a more psychedelic version (just because we are not sober scientists all the time!). 

Would you like to know what is going on at the top of the Brazilian mountains? See this video recorded by my friend and PhD candidate Mayara Assis. She had this brilliant initiative of sharing with us the most recent scientific discoveries about the vegetation that cover those mountains. Brazilian science matters!!!

That is the result of four years of research! My thesis is now at the library of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (RJ, Brazil). Soon it will also be available (full version) on line here. Enjoy it!

March is really the month of birthdays in our Lab: Bruno, Thiago, and me! All of us having birthdays on the same week. Of course, the lab will have to prepare a "surprise" party for us. Thank you all for being such a caring and fun lab!

Ahhhh my doctorate is done now. I feel a  mix of joy (I took maximum grade!) and sadness (there is no more plants to measure...). I am truly grateful to all those who helped me during this long and challenging journey. Thank you very much!

Feijoada and Samba! This is how our lab enjoy the weekend together. I feel so fortunate and proud to be part of this team that knows how to work hard, but also knows how to enjoy life outside work. 

It is so nice to try new things during my vaccation. That is my first time trying belly dance and I am just loving it <3

Thank you my dear colleagues of the Plant Ecology Lab (UERJ) for organizing a surprise farewell-party for me! I am going home (Aracaju, SE, Brazil) for a while, but soon I will be back to defend my PhD thesis.

First time the members of both Plant Ecology Labs from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and from the Federal Univeristy of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) are together to talk about Science (and to eat yummy foods too!).  Both students and professors  presented their lines of research and projects throughout a day of scientific celebration and partnership of two decades. I hope that is the first of many more meetings...

Today we were honoured to receive at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (RJ, Brazil) Prof Imma Oliveras and Prof Kevin Wheeler, both visitors from the University of Oxford (England). Prof Imma presented a lecture about "Dynamics of tropical vegetation transitions under global change" , while Prof Kevin talked about "The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: A new history begins on the Nile River".

One more well succeeded surprise party (we are mastering on this!) at the Plant Ecology Lab. This time, we are celebrating Walquiria Felipe's birthday :D

Today I was at the Itatiaia National Park (RJ, Brazil) to talk about the effects of Climate Change (especially droughts) on the Tropical Mountain Grasslands. This talk is going to be just a small part of a video that is being produced by my friend Mayara Assis (PhD student at UFRJ). Are you curious about that video content? Me too!  Soon it will be shared here ;)

Its time to fly back to Brazil! Six months at Oxford (England) just went by too quickly. I definitely learnt a lot here. Thank you very much for everyone who helped me during this time. I hope to be back here soon...

I am pleased to once again present the main results of my PhD thesis at the Ecosystem Lab meeting (Oxford, England). After almost six months here, my research (and my english) have improved a lot! 

After many months of training, I am happy and proud I was able to finish my first marathon at Edinburgh marathon festival (Scotland). It took me 5h 19min to run the 42Km (26.2 miles)! Now, I am definitely believing more in myself and in my legs.

It was supposed to be just one more training day for the marathon. Buuut, when I arrived at Wytham Woods... surprise! Bluebells bloom!! Wow! I am delighted to witness that event <3

I visited some colleges at Oxford (England) and, well... this is pretty much like being in a Harry Potter movie! Indeed, some of the scenes of the movies were recorded here <3

First time you see and touch snow in your life is really a big event! Second time it is ... already annoying. How can I ride my bike in such a  slippery ground?

The dream has come true. Today is my first day as academic visitor at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (England). I'm very excited about the next six months when I will be working in collaboration with prof Imma Oliveras and the other researchers from the Ecosystem Lab.

Time to celabrate Christmas with my family in Aracaju. This year is a very special Christmas: it is the first Christmas for my niece Bianca. Merry Christmas to all of you! Feliz Natal a todos!

Time to celabrate Christmas with my friends in Rio de Janeiro. If I fell out of science, I think I can at least make my living decorating parties. Don't you agree?

Today Prof Bruno Rosado and I visited the Science Club of the public school Telêmaco Gonçalves Maia (RJ, Brazil). It was a  wonderful day of exchange of knowledge!  We shared some of our research on plant vulnerability to Climate Change, and we also learn a lot from the students. Congratulations to the students and to the teacher Patrícia who arranged this meeting. 

So good to be in my parents' ranch again, where I spent most part of my childhood eating fruits from the tree, hiding horses, extracting pigments from flowers, and developing my appreciation for the nature.

It was still not this time that I completed my first marathon (42Km). Although it was a winter day, the temperatures went pretty high. So, I ended up experiencing low blood pressure, and I crossed the finishing line inside an ambulance! I lost this battle, but not the war.

The Postgraduate Program of Ecology and Evolution at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro is completing 10 years! Our mini-auditorium was too small for such huge celebration.

I finally get to know my little niece Bianca. When she was born I was not in my hometown Aracaju. She is so cute and so small. I must enjoy every minute with her, as I soon will have to leave again to finish my PhD in Rio de Janeiro.

ICMBio has just launched the "Research, Conservation and Society" newsletter, a publication that seeks to publicize the research released by the Biodiversity Information and Authorization System (SISBIO). The first issue is about Climate Change and reports on my PhD research. Check it out here.

Thank you Agata and her partner for bringing your drone to my fieldsite in Itatiaia. The videos and pictures of my rainfall manipulation experiment came out just amazing. It is so nice to see Itatiaia from a different perspective. 

Using a grant donated by the Rufford Foundation, I have produced hundreds of  flyers to be delivered to the visitors of the Itatiaia National Park (RJ, Brazil). In those flyers I explain a bit about my PhD research  and about the impacts of Climate Change on the Tropical Mountain Grassland vegetation. Download the flyer here, and feel free to disseminate my research you too.  Thanks!

Today I ran my first half marathon (21Km) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was actually easier than I thought. I am getting closer and closer of my final goal to complete a marathon!

Life is hard! This was the name of our race team, comprised by my cousin, his friends and me. We run a half marathon relay... It was really fun. Hope we get more chances to run together in the near future.

This year I started my PhD research at the grasslands of the Itatiaia National Park (RJ, Brazil), and I have already the pleasure to share some of my (very) preliminary results with the park managers and with other researchers. Every year the head of research, Léo Nascimento,  organize this fabulous meeting and he still prepares us and serves us a wonderful food! Thanks Léo!

When a biologist has to work as an engineer ... I am planning the construction of an equipment  to conduct a species cover survey on the grasslands of the Itatiaia National Park (RJ, Brazil), by using the pin point method. I hope it will work...

No climbing is getting serious, and there is no better place to do so than the Rio de Janeiro. Let's climb!

My brother invited me to join this crazy adventure: rapel a bridge. It was really a mix of freedom and fear. I am not sure I would do this again. But, it was an very coraugeous life experience.

Although my hand are way too small for this sport, I really love rowing. Every morning I row in this same river, but I always find something different. Some days the river is flat, some days lots of waves, some days fishes everywhere, and some days my rowing boat breaks...

Thank you very much Thalita Gabriella for visiting me in Sergipe. Hope you have enjoyed our food, our beaches, our crabs, and especially our Forro. I already miss you a lot my friend!

Today is a very special day, I have just finished my Master degree in Botany at the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). I am sure that moving to Rio to study this master was one of the best decisions in my life!

What a provilege to have a friend who have a sail boat! Rio de Janeiro is even more beautiful from the Botafogo Bay. Thanks Luis Fell for this wornderful experience!

Uhul! I completed my first 5km run race. Terrible pace, but the most important is that I completed my goal. Now... training for the 15km :)

Today I have the pleasure to meet the Prof Fernando Valladares, and to present to him part of my Master's research project. It is so nice when you can finally talk to the author of the papers you have been reading :D

Since I moved to Rio de Janeiro I started a new sport: running! Today I completed my first 3km run race under a light and refreshing rain. Next step: 5km ;)

My mother come to Rio de Janeiro to visit me and the Botanical Garden. But, she end up working at my Lab... sowing about one thousand seeds of Clusia hilariana (Clusiaceae). Thanks mom!

I am pretty happy today! I was awarded an honour medal for achieving the highest average grade (9,7) amongst the students of the Federal University of Sergipe (SE, Brazil) in 2011. This is a delightful recognition after four years of hard study. Read more about the award ceremony here.

I am so proud to complete my B.S. in Biology at the public Universidade Federal de Sergipe. After four years of hard-work and dedication, we deserve a big celebration with my colleagues, family, and friends. Thank you to all professors and mentors that helped me along this journey!

These are some photos taken during my period at the Herpetology Lab at the Federal Univeristy of Sergipe (SE, Brazil), where I developed my research project to become a Bachelor of Science in Biology. It was also where I discover that I must work with plants, because I have no patience to capture and to kill lizards, or any other animals! (and where I took these funny lizard pics).