Residence period: March 4th to December 31st, 2024
Department of Genetics, Ecology and Evolution of the Institute of Biological Sciences at UFMG
Marcos Callisto de Faria Pereira completed his degree in Biological Sciences (Ecology, 1991), a Master’s in Ecology (1994) and a PhD in Sciences from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1996). He works as a Full Professor in the Department of Genetics, Ecology and Evolution (ICB) at UFMG, where he coordinates the Bentos Ecology laboratory. As a professor at UFMG since 1997, he has developed teaching-research-extension and ecological innovation activities in projects financed by federal (CNPq, CAPES) and state (FAPEMIG) funding agencies and in partnership with Environmental Management of companies such as GERDAU and Eletrobras Furnas . He has experience in the areas of Limnology and Ecology of Bentos, with an emphasis on Stream Ecology, Biomonitoring, Water Quality Bioindicators, Environmental Education (Citizen Science) and Environmental Impact Assessment. He works in the Environmental area with an emphasis on aquatic ecology, water quality management in tropical river basins, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem goods and services, environmental sustainability. In transdisciplinary practices, it integrates solid ecological concepts, ecological assessment methodologies and multimetric indices that allow diagnosing, monitoring and training different sectors of society to raise awareness and develop critical thinking on issues related to water quality and biodiversity conservation in river basins in Brazil. He guides undergraduate and graduate students who can no longer learn only inside classrooms, or locked in their laboratories, or using internet search programs. They must be led to experience nature firsthand, learn about biodiversity, learn about the history of those landscapes, those mountains and those rivers.
SUSTAINABILITY OF AQUATIC BIODIVERSITY ON A CHANGING PLANET
The research project includes teaching-research-extension and ecological innovation activities. The project is located in the context of activities developed in Aquatic Ecology at UFMG, through partnerships in Environment, Social, Governance (ESG), in a research project financed by Eletrobras-Furnas in the study of ecological quality and bioindicators of water quality in basins hydrographic diagrams of hydroelectric projects in Brazil. The residency also includes working on the publishing of the book Rivers of South America (Editora Elsevier), carried out with researchers from Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela. This publication will have 25 chapters on the main hydrographic regions of our continent. Furthermore, the project will encompass environmental education activities (citizen science) with partner schools, with support from the Minas Gerais State Research Support Foundation (FAPEMIG) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ) and partnerships with Gerdau and Eletrobras-Furnas. The theme of this project is, therefore, in the Environmental area with an emphasis on aquatic ecology, water quality, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem goods and services, environmental sustainability.