My interests
I am an Entomologist interested in the ecology, evolution and conservation of bee-plant interactions. In my research, I integrate specimen-based research, fieldwork, phylogenetics and cutting-edge analytical methods. My goal is to understand and preserve pollination, a fundamental ecosystem service, in face of ongoing global changes. I have been working specially on neotropical apid bees, oil bee-plant interactions and bee conservation.
Currently I am a postdoctoral researcher at Vasconcelos Lab at the University of Michigan. |
In July 2024, it will be held in Brasilia, Brazil, the fourth edition of the Neotropical Bees systematics and Identification course with focus on the Cerrado fauna. We are a team of bee systematics and ecologists with the mission of share our knowledge about bees and help people use this knowledge in their research, teaching or outreach. The applications deadline is 31 of March 2024. More information and applications in the link bellow.
Research questions
How have bees and plants evolved in time and space?
I have always been deeply passionate about the intertwined evolutionary history of bees and flowering plants, which represents one of the most captivating examples of coevolution. My present focus lies in unravelling the evolutionary and ecological factors that underlie the geographical distribution of bee-plant interactions worldwide. For this purpose I am analyzing bee and plant geographic distribution and its climatic and traits correlates. Stingless bees are major flower visitors in the tropics, but their foraging preferences and behavior are still poorly understood. Using pollen and honey DNA metabarcoding, I investigate the floral choices in Neotropical stingless bees. Using species distribution and eological data, I am trying to understand stingless bee richness and evolution with tropical plants |
How pollinators and plants interact and how this interaction is maintained?
This is a broad research avenue that not only involves intense fieldwork-based research, but also examination of museum specimens and molecular investigation. I aim to understand the morphological, behavioural and phenological patterns of plant-pollinator interactions which ultimately lead to pollination. I have approached these questions across most of my research, conducting field-based research and documenting new interactions in different environments. I have recently incorporated the use of environmental DNA (DNA metabarcoding) methodology into my research. In my most recent paper (Martins et al. 2023). I uncovered contrasting patterns of flower visitation among three honey producing species and the most important floral sources for stingless bees. (The picture on the right shows a stingless bee, Paratrigona lineata, visiting a flower of Dalechampia sp.) |
How is bee-plant interaction affected by global changes?
My research explores various aspects of bee life histories and the impacts of human-driven changes in bee biodiversity. I have investigated the effects of the urban sprawl and climate change on species diversity and abundance, using newly collected fieldwork data and historical data from museum collections. In a collaboration with researchers at the University of Halle in Germany, we have been conducting a landscape-guided study using phylogenomics to investigate how body size and flower specialization relate to genetic responses to fragmentation in oil bees of the genera Centris and Epicharis, major pollinators of Malpighiaceae family (picture on the left show a flower of Byrsonima, a large genus in this family). |