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Introduction
I'm a research biologist compromised in understanding how anthropogenic activities, as deforestation, fragmentation, land use change and the remaining landscape structure affect the transmission risk and occurrence of zoonotic diseases, in order to to propose guidelines for the management of multifunctional landscapes - that can provide ecosystem services (such as the regulation of zoonotic diseases) and the conservation of biodiversity.
Publications
Publications (77)
Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome (HCPS) is a disease with high human lethality rates, whose transmission risk is directly related to the abundance of reservoir rodents. In the Brazilian Atlantic forest, the main reservoirs species, Oligoryzomys nigripes and Necromys lasiurus, are thought to increase in abundance with deforestation. Therefore, fo...
Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome (HCPS) is a disease caused by Hantavirus, which is highly virulent for humans. High temperatures and conversion of native vegetation to agriculture, particularly sugarcane cultivation can alter abundance of rodent generalist species that serve as the principal reservoir host for HCPS, but our understanding of the...
We performed a literature review in order to improve our understanding of how landscape and climate drivers affect HCPS outbreaks. Anthropogenic landscape changes such as forest loss, fragmentation and agricultural land uses are related with a boost in hantavirus reservoir species abundance and hantavirus prevalence in tropical areas, increasing HC...
Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) is a disease caused by Hantavirus, which are negative-sense RNA viruses in the family Bunyaviridae that are highly virulent to humans. Numerous factors modify risk of Hantavirus transmission and consequent HPS risk. Human-driven landscape change can foster transmission risk by increasing numbers of habitat genera...
In the Americas, wild yellow fever (WYF) is an infectious disease that is highly lethal for some non-human primate species and non-vaccinated people. Specifically, in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Haemagogus leucocelaenus and Haemagogus janthinomys mosquitoes act as the major vectors. Despite transmission risk being related to vector densities, li...
Deforestation, landscape dynamics, and socioeconomic factors within the tropical Americas, Africa, and Asia may have different impacts on malaria incidence. To evaluate how these drivers affect malaria incidence at the global and regional scale, we collected malaria incidence rates from 2000 to 2019 from 67 tropical countries, along with forest los...
Purpose of Review
In this paper, we synthesize the status and trends of studies assessing the effects of landscape structure and changes on zoonotic and vector-borne disease risk in the Tropical America region (i.e., spanning from Mexico to southern South America). Understanding how landscape structure affects disease emergence is critical to desig...
Birds pose a serious threat to aviation due to collisions, leading to both life and severe economic losses. To mitigate this problem and prevent further collisions, identifying the species with the highest aviation hazard should be the frst step. Here we calculate a Relative Hazard Score (RHS) based on an extensive open-source database developed by...
Malaria, Chagas disease, and cutaneous leishmaniasis are endemic in the Amazon. Changes in landscape caused by deforestation and fragmentation can support transmission of malarial parasites through the increased dominance of anopheline vectors that augments human exposure to infectious bites. As for Chagas disease and cutaneous leishmaniasis, accum...
The amphibian skin microbiome is an important component of anti-pathogen defense, but the impact of environmental change on the link between microbiome composition and host stress remains unclear. In this study, we used radiotelemetry and host translocation to track microbiome composition and function, pathogen infection, and host stress over time...
Deforestation and climate change threaten social and ecological well-being in Amazonia. Research co-produced through ethical collaborations across multiple knowledge systems can contribute toward just and sustainable futures for the region. Accelerating deforestation and degradation in Amazonia are undermining the resilience of one of Earth's most...
Graphical abstract Highlights d Ecological metadata were compiled for 7,694 sites across the Brazilian Amazon d Accessibility and proximity to research facilities influenced research probability d Knowledge gaps are greater in uplands than in wetlands and aquatic habitats d Undersampled areas overlap predicted hotspots of climate change and defores...
Forest fragmentation is being pointed out as one of the main threats to biodiversity loss, leading to population isolation, flora and fauna community composition alterations, and to increased anthropozoonotic disease risk. We present the results of a National Geographic funded project that focused on an isolated eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes...
The intense process of deforestation in tropical forests poses serious challenges for the survival of biodiversity, as well as for the human species itself. This scenario is supported by the increase in the incidence of epidemics of zoonotic origin observed over the last few decades. In the specific case of sylvatic yellow fever (YF), it has alread...
Zoonotic diseases represent 75% of emerging infectious diseases worldwide, and their emergence is mainly attributed to human‐driven changes in landscapes. Land use change, especially the conversion of natural areas to agricultural use, has the potential to impact hosts and vector dynamics, affecting pathogen transmission risk. While these links are...
Despite advances in understanding the effects of landscape structure on ecosystem services (ES), many challenges related to these complex spatial interactions remain. In particular, the integration of landscape effects on different components of the service provision chain (supply, demand, and flow) remains poorly understood and conceptualized. Her...
Indigenous territories are considered important for conservation, but little is known about their role in maintaining human health. Here we quantified the potential human health and economic benefits of protecting these territories in the Brazilian Amazon, by using cardio-vascular and respiratory diseases cases, pollutant and forest cover data. Bet...
Anthropogenic habitat disturbance is fundamentally altering patterns of disease transmission and immunity across the vertebrate tree of life. Most studies linking anthropogenic habitat change and disease focus on habitat loss and fragmentation, but these processes often lead to a third process that is equally important: habitat split. Defined as sp...
Alongside modernity, the human activity has been a key factor in global environmental risks, with worldwide anthropic modification being the cause of the emergence of diseases for wild and livestock animals, and even humans. In special, the increase in the spatial distribution and in the incidence of some emerging infectious diseases (EID) are dire...
Alongside modernity, the human activity has been a key factor in global environmental risks, with worldwide anthropic modification being the cause of the emergence of diseases for wild and livestock animals, and even humans. In special, the increase in the spatial distribution and in the incidence of some emerging infectious diseases (EID) are dire...
Context The intense process of deforestation in tropical forests poses serious challenges for the survival of biodiversity, as well as for the human species itself. This scenario is supported by the increase in the incidence of epidemics of zoonotic origin observed over the last few decades. In the specific case of sylvatic yellow fever (YF), it ha...
The Amazon forest has the highest biodiversity on Earth. However, information on Amazonian vertebrate diversity is still deficient and scattered across the published, peer‐reviewed, and gray literature and in unpublished raw data. Camera traps are an effective non‐invasive method of surveying vertebrates, applicable to different scales of time and...
The Amazon forest has the highest biodiversity on Earth. However, information on Amazonian vertebrate diversity is still deficient and scattered across the published, peer-reviewed, and gray literature and in unpublished raw data. Camera traps are an effective non-invasive method of surveying vertebrates, applicable to different scales of time and...
O lagarto teídeo endêmico do Cerrado Kentropyx paulensis está classificado nas categorias “Em Perigo” e “Vulnerável” pelas listas do estado de São Paulo e Minas Gerais, respectivamente, sendo, portanto, considerado ameaçado. Com isso, esse trabalho objetivou compilar registros de K. paulensis obtidos em diversos trabalhos realizados no Planalto Oci...
Man-made changes to the landscape play a crucial role in altering the epidemiologic patterns of infectious diseases, mainly as a result of pathogen spillover. Sylvatic yellow fever is ideally suited to modeling of this phenomenon as the risk of transmission of the disease as well as its circulation and dispersal are associated with forest fragmenta...
We present three new records of the Pantanal cat (Leopardus braccatus) for the São Paulo state, Brazil. The records are from highly anthropized areas in the Atlantic Forest biome and are based on three roadkilled animals. Based on our records and on other recent examples of open-area dwellers recently recorded in Atlantic Forest areas, we discuss w...
In the current scenario of environmental changes, anthropic pressures on biodiversity are in constant increase, stressing the importance of assessing the distribution and occurrence of organisms in natural regions, especially in protected areas. Here we surveyed the terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Assis State Forest and updated the existing species...
In the current scenario of environmental changes, anthropic pressures on biodiversity are in constant increase, stressing the importance of assessing the distribution and occurrence of organisms in natural regions, especially in protected areas. Here we surveyed the terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Assis´ State Forest and updated the existing specie...
Landscape connectivity is important for a wide range of ecological processes, including to disease spread, once it describes the degree to which landscapes facilitate or impede vector and hosts dispersion. Understanding connectivity is extremely important to identify where pathogens can move, and at what speed, allowing the organization of vaccinat...
Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease caused by the protozoan Leishmania spp. mainly affecting individuals of low socioeconomic status. In tropical regions the transmission risk to humans depends not only on environmental factors, such as vegetation cover and climate, but also on the socioeconomic characteristics of human populations. However, th...
Worldwide, wildlife-aircraft collisions constitute a major human health and safety concern. About 98% of wildlife-aircraft strikes involve bird species (i.e., bird strikes) resulting in an annual loss of $1.2 billion to the aviation industry and costing 194 human lives. Thus, airport managers desire better tools to identify wildlife aircraft risks...
We report on new occurrence records of Lophostoma brasiliense Peters, 1867 (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) from the states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul, southeastern Brazil. Specimens from São Paulo were mist-netted in an area originally covered by the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado ecosystems of which only small and isolated fragments remain, whi...
Diseases transmitted between animals and humans are known as zoonotic diseases. The direct and indirect drivers that affect the emergence of zoonotic diseases are numerous and interacting, and their relative impact on the emergence of new diseases differs geographically with natural, cultural, social and economic conditions. In this article, we pro...
Myotis albescens has a wide distribution, occurring from southern Mexico to central Argentina and Uruguay, where it is usually caught near streams or flooded areas. M. albescens roosts during the day in cavities such as hollow logs, rock cavities, and buildings. Here, we describe a group of M. albescens roosting in a highway underpass in an Atlanti...
Inter-relationships among mosquito vectors, Plasmodium parasites, human ecology, and biotic and abiotic factors, drive malaria risk. Specifically, rural landscapes shaped by human activities have a great potential to increase the abundance of malaria vectors, putting many vulnerable people at risk. Understanding at which point the abundance of vect...
Ecosystem services (ESs)-the benefits provided to people by nature-are fundamental to human well-being. The sustainable provision of such services is constrained by both spatial and temporal dynamics of ES supply (S) and demand (D), but the temporal aspect is usually disregarded despite its high relevance in sustainability analyses. Here, we propos...
We present new records of Hoary Fox, Lycalopex vetulus (Lund, 1842), and Pantanal Cat, Leopardus braccatus Cope, 1889, from a Cerrado-Caatinga-Atlantic Forest ecotone, Brazil. Records are based on three roadkilled specimens (two Hoary Foxes and one Pantanal Cat) from Vitória da Conquista, southern Bahia. Although highly anthropized, the region stil...
Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropica...
Qual a relação entre florestas e doenças? Como áreas verdes das cidades podem influenciar o risco de infecções? Qual a hipótese para o surgimento do novo coronavírus? Veja como pesquisas respondem a esses pontos.
https://pp.nexojornal.com.br/perguntas-que-a-ciencia-ja-respondeu/2020/A-rela%C3%A7%C3%A3o-entre-zoonoses-e-o-meio-ambiente-explicada-em...
A cuíca d’agua (Chironectes minimus) é um mamífero semiaquático pouco amostrado em áreas de Mata Atlântica do Brasil. Neste estudo apresentamos novos registros de C. minimus no estado de São Paulo, sudeste do Brasil, e comentamos sobre seu comportamento e ecologia. Nós instalamos nove armadilhas fotográficas em drenagens fluviais e passagens de gad...
Background:
Hantavirus disease in humans is rare but frequently lethal in the Neotropics. Several abundant and widely distributed Sigmodontinae rodents are the primary hosts of Orthohantavirus and, in combination with other factors, these rodents can shape hantavirus disease. Here, we assessed the influence of host diversity, climate, social vulne...
Brazil's environmental legislation obliges private properties to retain a fixed proportion of their total area with native vegetation, the so-called “Legal Reserves”. Those areas represent practically one third of the country's native vegetation and are well known for their role in biodiversity protection and in the provisioning of a wide range of...
Several viruses from the genus Orthohantavirus are known to cause lethal disease in humans. Sigmodontinae rodents are the main hosts responsible for hantavirus transmission in the tropical forests, savannas, and wetlands of South America. These rodents can shed different hantaviruses, such as the lethal and emerging Araraquara orthohantavirus. Fact...
Resumo
A legislação ambiental brasileira requer que as propriedades privadas mantenham uma proporção de sua área coberta com vegetação nativa, as chamadas Reservas Legais. Essas áreas representam praticamente um terço da vegetação nativa do país e são reconhecidas pelo seu importante papel na proteção da biodiversidade e na provisão de uma vasta ga...
The AZA.
The Agro-environmental Zoning for the sugar and Alcohol Industry (AZA). The suitability classification is based on edapho-climate conditions and biodiversity protection. Source: Environment Secretary of the state of São Paulo.
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HCPS risk lower limits.
Map of lower limits of Hantavirus infection risk according to the five scenarios evaluated: (A) sugar cane expansion, (B) temperature anomalies of RCP4.5, (C) and RCP8.5 scenarios, (D) RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios combined with sugar cane expansion (D and E, respectively).
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Mean sugarcane cover.
Mean sugarcane cover (in %) for municipalities with Cerrado and Atlantic forest vegetation in 2012 (“current”) and 2050 according to our model expansion scenario (potential). Black points represent the means, and horizontal bars represent standard errors.
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HCPS risk maps with ± standard deviation.
Map of change in Hantavirus infection risk according to four scenarios: (A) average temperature anomalies + 1 standard deviation of RCP4.5 (B) average of temperature anomalies—1 standard deviation of RCP4.5 (C) average of temperature anomalies + 1 standard deviation of RCP8.5; (D) average of temperature ano...
HCPS risk upper limits.
Map of upper limits of Hantavirus infection risk according to the five scenarios evaluated: (A) sugar cane expansion, (B) temperature anomalies of RCP4.5, (C) and RCP8.5 scenarios, (D) RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios combined with sugar cane expansion (D and E, respectively). Local values (municipalities) are indicated in each m...
HCPS risk maps.
Map of Hantavirus infection risk according to current condition (baseline, A) and five scenarios: sugar cane expansion (B), temperature anomalies of RCP4.5 (C) and RCP8.5 scenarios (D); RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios combined with sugar cane expansion (E and F, respectively). Local values (municipalities) are indicated in each map, as...
Predictors.
Predictor variables included in the baseline model, years in which data is available, source data and how we modeled this information with disease data.
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Recent studies predict disease risk using different proxies, such as pathogen prevalence in hosts, abundance of the main hosts, and the number of reported disease cases. These proxies are used to build risk maps that can aid the prevention of new disease outbreaks. To date, these proxies have not been widely tested for differences in their predicti...
Three individuals of the endangered Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) were sighted in a small river in the municipality of Buriticupu, Maranhão state, Brazil. Information on the distribution of this species is contradictory, with some authors ignoring while others confirming the presence of this species in this state, but only in the Rebio do Gu...
Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome (HCPS) is a disease caused by Hantavirus, which are negative-sense RNA viruses in the family Bunyaviridae. These viruses are highly virulent to humans, taking about 50% of infected people to death. The main Hantavirus reservoir is constituded by generalist rodents species, which increase in abundance in agricultu...
Exploratory analysis results made with generalized linear mixed models.
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Moran´s I test applied to the number of HPS cases for cerrado and Atlantic forest regions.
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Exploratory analysis results made with generalized linear mixed models and rodent abundance data.
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All set of candidate models analyzed in the generalized linear mixed models.
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Moran´s I test applied to the residuals of the Bernoulli models for Cerrado and Atlantic forest regions.
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Predictor variables included in the model.
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Amount of native vegetation (A) and sugar cane plantation (B) in the state of São Paulo.
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Spatial representation of the minimum (A) and maximum (B) probability of Hantavirus infection risk for São Paulo State.
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Average and range values of annual mean temperature and total precipitation for the municipalities of Cerrado and Atlantic Forest regions, from 1993 to 2012.
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Herein we present new distribution records of Blastoceurs dichotomus in the State of Minas Gerais. Previously,
this species had only been recorded inside the Grande Sertão Veredas National Park, in the state of Minas Gerais. Our
new record is 110 km southeast of Grande Sertão Veredas NP. Given its “Vulnerable” IUCN status and this new record, it
is...
The effects of habitat configuration on species persistence are predicted to be most apparent when remaining habitat cover is below 30%. We tested this prediction by comparing vertebrate communities in 21 landscapes located in the southern Amazonia, including 7 control landscapes (~100% of forest cover) and 14 fragmented landscapes (4 × 4 km). The...
The Brazilian Amazon has several types of deforestation patterns, varying from the typical “fishbone pattern” common in small properties, to large deforested areas (large-property pattern), resulting in landscapes with different structure, configuration and disturbance levels. Theory suggests that a disproportionate loss of species occurs when tota...
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