Victor Saito

Freshwater ecosystems harbor some of the planet’s richest biodiversity, yet they are also among the most threatened. My research is driven by a simple question: how do ecological communities in streams and rivers respond to rapid environmental change? From small Atlantic Forest streams to large river basins such as the La Plata, I study how climate change, biological invasions, urbanization, and land-use change reshape freshwater biodiversity, food webs, and ecosystem functioning.

I am an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the Federal University of São Carlos, where I integrate community ecology, ecosystem ecology, and network approaches to understand how energy and matter flow through freshwater communities. A central focus of my work is how body size, species interactions, and food-web structure mediate ecological responses to global change, with implications for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. To address these questions, I combine field studies, quantitative analyses, computational modelling, and mesocosm experiments. My research is only possible thanks to the curiosity, dedication, and creativity of outstanding students and collaborators from Brazil and around the world.