Marina Corrêa Côrtes
Assistant Professor
I am an ecologist interested in the processes generating the spatial distribution and genetic structure of plants. I am particularly interested in the role that animals play on the dispersal of pollen, seeds and genes across natural and human altered environments in the tropics.
Email: marina.cortes@unesp.br
Phone (work): +55 19 3526 4231
PhD students
co-advised PhD students
Robert Timmers
Robert is a PhD candidate based at Utrecht University in the The Netherlands. His work is part of the animal-plant interactions project that is co-funded by FAPESP and NWO. Through a combination of focal observations and the use of wildlife cameras, we aim to quantify plant-frugivore interactions across a chronosequence of regenerating Atlantic Forest fragments. Based on our findings we aim to develop restoration guidelines to promote plant-frugivore interactions that enhance biodiversity and ecosystem restoration.
Main advisors: Prof. Merel Soons (Utrecht University), Dr. Marijke van Kuijk (Utrecht University).
E-mail: R.Timmers@uu.nl
Marianne Azevedo Silva
Marianne is interested in evolutionary ecology and landscape genetics of ants. Her goals are to characterize the latitudinal distribution of intraspecific genetic diversity of ants in the Cerrado and evaluate its association with environmental heterogeneity. She is a PhD student in the Ecology program at UNICAMP, Campinas. Advisor: Dr. Paulo Oliveira, co-advisor Marina Côrtes. Collaborators: Dr. Sebastian Sendoya, Dra. Anete Pereira de Souza (UNICAMP), Dr. Gustavo M. Mori (UNESP Litoral Paulista).
E-mail: azevedosilva.m@gmail.com
Master students
Willian is a Master's student in the Ecology & Biodiversity graduate program. He will characterize the phenotypic diversity of animal-dispersed fruits with emphasis on pulp nutritional content in regenerating Atlantic secondary forests.
E-mail: simioniwb@gmail.com
Carina is a Master's student studying the role introduced plant species play in naturally regenerating secondary forest fragments. She hopes to integrate novel molecular techniques with more traditional observational methods to analyze seed dispersal from multiple perspectives.
E-mail: carinaisabellamotta@gmail.com
Undergraduate students
Giovanna Andrade Oliveira
Giovanna is an Ecology student at UNESP Rio Claro. They are currently compiling data on plant and dispersal traits of zoochoric trees and working on DNA extraction of a zoochoric tree from natural regenerating Atlantic forests. The're also doing bird DNA extraction on dispersed seeds of Euterpe edulis to understand the contribution of each disperser species to the seed rain pattern.
E-mail: giovanna.andrade@unesp.br
Vinícius Godoy
Vinicius is a Bachelor's student in Ecology by UNESP and he is working with plant DNA degradation in bird droppings. With Carina Motta, he intends to understand how molecular tools can help us to identify frugivory interactions and potential seed dispersers.
E-mail: vinicius.godoy@unesp.br
Former students
(*co-advised)
2022 BSc Biological Sciences. Unesp - Rio Claro
Senior thesis: Centers for animal rehabilitation in the State of São Paulo and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
E-mail: isaaroli@gmail.com
2021 Master in Ecology & Biodiversity, UNESP, Rio Claro
Thesis: Wing fluctuating asymmetry in frugivorous butterflies in agricultural landscapes
E-mail: ademirfranc7@gmail.com
Mariana Giuliatti Winter
2021 Master in Ecology & Biodiversity, UNESP, Rio Claro
Thesis: Seed rain spatial pattern of a tropical palm generated by fruit-eating birds
E-mail: magwinter@gmail.com
Larissa Sakellarios Lazzari
2021 BSc In Ecology, UNESP, Rio Claro
Senior thesis: Seed dispersal attributes of trees regenerating in areas with different land use histories in the Corumbataí Basin
E-mail: larissasakellarios@gmail.com
2020 Master in Ecology & Biodiversity, UNESP, Rio Claro.
Thesis: Limitação da dispersão de sementes e suas consequências genéticas em remanescentes da Mata Atlântica
Co-advisor: Dr. Carolina da Silva Carvalho
E-mail: marilia_souza2@hotmail.com
