Research
Two lines that hold each other up: one theoretical, on how natural selection organises interaction networks; another on what happens to ecology when it meets other ways of knowing. The applications live on the border between them.
Research lines
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2018 – present
Structure and dynamics of ecological and socio-ecological networks Theories and applications
How interactions between species organise into networks, how those networks respond to extinctions and disturbance, and what their structure reveals about resilience. The work builds on adaptive network models — where topology and evolutionary dynamics feed back into each other — and extends the approach to systems in which social and ecological factors are inseparable.
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2024 – present
Multicultural ecology Bridges between Indigenous and academic sciences
Philosophy of ecology, anthropology and Indigenous sciences in dialogue. The point is neither to translate one knowledge system into the terms of the other, nor to treat them as unequal versions of the same thing — it is to examine what each makes visible and what each leaves out. With Marina Hirota, Carolina Levis, João Paulo Lima Barreto and Silvio Sanches Barreto.
Current projects
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2023 – 2027
IDEAL International Joint Laboratory Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Earth Observation applied to Sustainability
An international joint laboratory bringing together 11 institutions and 52 researchers from Brazil and France. It applies artificial intelligence and data science to describe current socio-ecological conditions from large datasets and to co-construct models of adaptive transformation pathways towards sustainable agroecological landscapes in the Brazilian Northeast. It includes academic training and scientific exchange through ITAN, the network connecting institutions and territories facing similar challenges.
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2021 – present
DATAPB An integrated, interoperable and open data base for Paraíba
A transdisciplinary project funded by FAPESQ-PB, with three strands: a repository of environmental, social and economic data built on FAIR and CARE principles; pilot projects integrating and synthesising data for participatory socio-ecological governance; and training teachers as producers of place-based knowledge about sustainability.
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2019 – present
SinBiose — Neglected tropical diseases Integrating eco-evolutionary and socio-economic network data and models
Applies complex network approaches to understand how the combination of environmental degradation, shifts in ecological communities and social vulnerability shapes the emergence of tropical diseases. Funded by CNPq/MCTIC, SinBiose call no. 17/2019.
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2025 – present
MIASAGA Methodologies and Innovative Approaches for Sustainable Agroecology and Governance Adaptivity
A teaching project under IRD's PSF-SUD programme, with Laure Berti-Équille.