2026 - 2028
One Health in the Amazon: socioecological integration for socio-biodiversity policies, ecosystem services and zoonosis prevention
This project aims to support One Health policies by developing a conceptual and methodological framework that strengthens the capacity to understand and predict population vulnerability to the emergence and persistence of zoonoses by integrating environmental, biological, and socio-economic dimensions, and translates co-produced knowledge—derived from the synthesis of scientific data and local knowledge—into accessible information for diverse stakeholders, thereby reinforcing intersectoral public policies at the interface of ecosystem services and human health in the Amazon.
Coordination: Cláudia Torres Codeço / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Gisele R. Winck / Milton Barbosa / Paulo Sérgio D`Andrea / Antonio Miguel Vieira Monteiro
Team: Alessandra Nava / Ana Paula Lula Costa / Izabel Cristina dos Reis / Maria Isabel Sobral Escada / Bruno Moreira de Carvalho / Andreimar Soares / Danilo Araújo Fernandes / Tiago Coutinho Cavalcante / Fabiana Lopes Rocha / Jorge Luiz do Nascimento / Marilene Brazil / Miguel Scarcello / Vivyanne Santiago Magalhães / Winnie Muniz Brum / André Luis Botelho de Moura / Gabriella Cruz / Deusilene Dall'Acqua / Jose Joaquin Carvajal Cortes / Rair Verde / Rosana Gentile
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
2025 - 2028
UNPAIR: Understanding parasite-host networks
This project aims to expand previous databases to include immunological and virulence traits and by constructing local and regional parasite–host meta-networks across biomes and ecoregions. Integrating empirical data with advanced statistical approaches, it will identify key patterns, map areas of high beta-diversity, and predict the impacts of climate and anthropogenic change on network dynamics.
Group Leaders: Gisele R. Winck / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Aniello Lampo
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
2024 - 2028
MOSAIC: Multi-site application of Open Science in the creAtion of healthy environments Involving local Communities
This project explores how Open Science, through improved data integration and participatory approaches, can empower citizens to understand and address the health and well-being impacts of ecosystem change and degradation. It hypothesizes that when communities are actively involved across the entire data cycle and share ethical, fair, and open knowledge practices, they are best equipped to interpret complex environmental–health information and develop locally appropriate adaptation and mitigation solutions. The MOSAIC project aims to implement open, multimodal, and replicable information ecosystems that enable communities to understand health risks, participate in public debate, and influence policy and decision-making.
Team: Emmanuel Roux (PI) / Consortium involving 15 partners from 7 different countries
Funding: Horizon Europe
2023 - 2028
Zoonotic disease emergence and the resilience of socio-ecological networks
In the face of the current biodiversity crisis and climate changes, we urge to understand both how species extinctions and introductions affect parasite transmission chains. This proposal approaches the problem in an interdisciplinary way, integrating the theoretical framework of ecology, evolution, epidemiology and social sciences with machine learning tools, complex network theory and mathematical modeling. Based on an innovative socio-ecological approach, we expect to develop effective nature-based solutions that maximize biodiversity conservation while minimize the risk of disease emergence. The anticipated insights on disease ecology can impact several aspects of economic and human development, including public health and, particularly, to inform policy-makers regarding the management of anthropogenic processes affecting biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and human welfare.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Gabriella Cruz
Funding: Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Talento Investigador)
2023 - 2025
Land use change, ecosystem resilience and zoonotic spillover risk
We propose an integrative landscape ecology approach to develop a synthetic understanding of biodiversity function and spillover risk in a context of both forest loss and forest recovery. The goal of our project is to understand how the reorganization of biodiversity on a changing planet affects human health. Our project integrates data from extensive field surveys to build predictive models that explore functional biodiversity, pathogen spillover risk and ecosystem resilience under a gradient of forest cover and landscape configuration, including also a gradient of forest recovery in the Atlantic Forest, one of the most threatened ecosystems of the world, and a hotspot for disease emergence.
Team: Paula Prist - PI / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Leandro Reverberi Tambosi / Florencia Sangermano / Marina Galvão Bueno / Mariana Moraes Vidal
Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF)
2022 - 2023
Parasite spillover in anthropogenic landscapes
This project examines how species extinctions and resilient hosts reshape parasite transmission and spillover risk under biodiversity loss and climate change. It integrates ecological and evolutionary theory with machine learning and adaptive network models to generate spatially explicit spillover hotspot predictions, and validates them with new field data to directly inform science-based policy.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI
Funding: Marie Sklodowska-Curie program, European Commission
2021 - 2022
Adaptive networks for predicting infectious diseases outbreaks
Although we currently have an increasing availability of data on biodiversity and parasite prevalence distributions, the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms driving the association between landscape anthropization and zoonotic disease emergence remain unclear. To advance knowledge, we need to understand the processes by which species are lost from altered communities and the role played by distinct species in parasite transmission cycles. The aim of this project is to develop analytical frameworks integrating models with empirical data to understand and predict the structure and dynamics of host and parasite interaction networks.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI
Funding: Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
2020 - 2025
Disease meta-community ecology: Moving from the dilution effect to dilution landscapes [link]
Anthropogenic changes in landscape structure are related to the process of parasite spillover and disease emergence. Yet, the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms associating landscape change and disease emergence remain unclear. We need to understand both the non-random sequences by which communities are disassembled, and whether resilient species tend to amplify or dilute parasite transmission. We will develop theoretical and analytical frameworks to understand the structure and dynamics of host-parasite interaction networks across space and time. We will parameterize mathematical models with empirical data in order to model and predict: the diversity and composition of parasite and host assemblages across the landscape; the probability of parasite-host interactions; the effect of network structure on parasite-host coevolutionary dynamics; and the spatial risk of parasite spillover. We will then test model predictions and assumptions by sampling new empirical data.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Mariana Moraes Vidal / Ana Paula Lula Costa / Gisele Winck / Gabriella Cruz / Pedro Bolanho Mendes
Funding: Instituto Serrapilheira
2020 - 2023
SARS-CoV-2 infection in wild and domestic animals in an Atlantic Forest area in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro
SARS-CoV-2 is believed to infect several mammals, such as bats, non-human primates, cats, ferrets and canids. However, we do not know whether these animals are able to maintain and transmit the virus. Epidemiological studies that elucidate which animals are possible hosts or permissive to infection are necessary. Understanding how an animal virus crosses species boundaries to infect humans so effectively is critical in preventing future zoonotic events, including the reemergence of COVID-19. The goal of this study is to analyze samples collected from domestic, synanthropic and wild animals from a Atlantic Forest remnant in the Rio de Janeiro city, to detect the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 and characterize the virus genome of the Coronaviridae family. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyzes of the viral genome will reveal the dynamics of this virus in animal populations. This study contributes to the understanding of the role of animals in the epidemiological cycle of SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging viruses of importance to public and animal health.
Team: Ricardo Moratelli Mendonça da Rocha - PI / Marina Galvão Bueno / Maria Ogrzewalska / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Rosana Gentile / Socrates Fraga da Costa Neto / Marina Carvalho Furtado / Sandro Antônio Pereira / Rodrigo Caldas Menezes / Paola Cristina Resende Silva / Maria Alice do Amaral Kuzel / Eduardo Rubião / Paulo Castiglioni Lara / Juana Oneida Huamán Charret Portugal / Judith Breuer / Sunando Roy / Rachel Williams
Funding: Foundation for Support of Research in the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ)
2020 - 2023
Integrating eco-evolutionary and socio-economic network data and models to understand and predict outbreaks of neglected tropical diseases
Global changes challenge scientists to build transdisciplinary knowledge that bridge theory, methods, and big data to sustain the integrative management of biodiversity, ecosystem services and socio-economic welfare. Fostering multi-institutional, transdisciplinary efforts to understand and predict outbreaks of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) represents an outstanding opportunity to combine biological and social science approaches to complex systems and promote science-based frameworks for policy-making and for optimizing the management of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and public health. We here propose an adaptive network approach to investigate the interface between biodiversity and public health in Brazil. In doing so, we aim to disentangle biological and socio-economic determinants of NTDs outbreaks based on (1) synthesis of existing big data to parameterize adaptive network models encompassing species-interactions and socio-economic network data describing biodiversity structure (which sustain ecosystem services) and the institutional network of public facilities (which sustain social welfare) at the local, regional, and/or national scales; (2) transdisciplinary theoretical integration built on the network approach to complex systems and, particularly, on the extension of the adaptive network approach to develop empirically-informed models predicting NTDs outbreaks; and (3) the articulation of the backbone of a multi-institutional network bridging research on biodiversity and public health and the strategic, integrative planning of public policies. Our proposal relies on the integrative approach provided by adaptive networks, which are a general class of dynamic network models that have been widely applied to study the structure and dynamics of complex systems in Biology, Economy, and the Social Sciences. Recently, adaptive network models have been proposed as the core of an integrative framework aimed to foster cooperative research involving theoretical and applied scientists interested in understanding, predicting and managing ecosystem services. We intend to extend this approach to investigate the intertwined dynamics of ecological networks, which depict ecosystem within which pathogens are embedded, and social networks, which depict the structure of public facilities and other determinants of health. Therefore, we expect to advance transdisciplinary theory building on the interface between biodiversity and public health by making publicly available biological and socio-economic big data associated with a transdisciplinary predictive framework that merges science, governance, and societal practices to strengthen ecosystem services and health policies..
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Paulo Sérgio D'Andrea - PI / Gisele Winck / Gabriella Cruz / Rosana Gentile / José Luís Passos Cordeiro / Paulo Roberto Guimarães Júnior / Rafael Raimundo - Co-coordinator / Carlos Melián / Paula Lemos-Costa / Ana Carolina Figueiredo Lacerda / Ana Elisa de Faria Bacellar Schittini / Eduardo Krempser da Silva / Elaine Folly Ramos / Elba Regina Sampaio de Lemos / Fabiana Lopes Rocha / Jorge Luiz do Nascimento / Marco Antonio Ratzsch de Andreazzi / Marina Galvão Bueno / Samanta Cristina das Chagas Xavier / Talita Lima do Nascimento / Darren Evans .
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) [link]
Connections: Research Group IRIS: Innovation for Resilience, Inclusion and Sustainability [link]
2020 - 2023
Ecosystem and Environmental Services as Health Services: Competing Land Use Trajectories for the Amazon Biome and their Link to Vector Borne Diseases
Vector borne diseases are an important cause of morbidity, mortality and economic cost in Brazil and other tropical countries. Their dynamics and persistence involve a complex interaction between parasites and multiple hosts: humans, arthropods and multiple vertebrate species. There is a large body of knowledge and data on the ecology, biogeography, and epidemiology of vector borne diseases such as malaria, Chagas, dengue, yellow fever, among others. Also, there is a mature ecological theory linking disease dynamics to biodiversity and the landscape. The goal of this proposal is to develop indicators for ecosystem services coupled to health and agricultural productivity in the Amazon. This region is under rapid change due to competing land use trajectories associated with different economic development pathways. Our team of natural, health and applied social scientists will use available spatial and temporal data for land use and land cover, disease incidence, maps of mosquito suitability, inventories of parasites, hosts and vectors biodiversity, socio-economic surveys, local productive and innovative systems to develop a classification and measurement protocol of ecosystem and environmental services specific for vector borne diseases. The protocol will be applied to the technological trajectories observed in the Amazon region. We will deliver a framework for assessing health ecosystem and environmental services that can be integrated with other views to better understand the health and ecosystem impacts of different development strategies captured by competing land use trajectories for the Amazon and contribute to an informed decision making process based on the best science and empirical evidence.
Team: Cláudia Torres Codeço - PI / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Mercedes Pascual / Andrew P Dobson / Monica da Silva-Nunes / Flávio Codeço Coelho / Raquel Martins Lana / Antonio Miguel Vieira Monteiro / Izabel Cristina dos Reis / Andres Baeza / Ana Paula Dal`Asta / Maria Isabel Sobral Escada / Danilo Araújo Fernandes / Danuzia Lima Rodrigues / Alexandre Bahia Gontijo Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). [link]
2019 - 2021
Functional ecology of zoonoses: Deciphering the epidemiological role of wild hosts in the transmission cycles of zoonoses in landscapes with different degrees of conservation.
Understanding how the structure of mammalian host communities is related to rates of infection by zoonotic agents is crucial to understanding the transmission cycles of zoonoses and predicting the emergence of outbreaks in human populations. Functional diversity allows us to understand the ecological role (function) of species in an ecosystem according to their morphological, physiological and behavioral characteristics (functional traits) and thus to predict the ecological impact resulting from their loss. In this sense, this project aims to develop theoretical models and innovative analytical methodologies to integrate theory with empirical data, advancing the field of the ecology of zoonoses in Brazil. We will propose quantitative and qualitative tools to identify which are the mammals functional traits that are relevant to their function in zoonoses transmission cycles and, thus, determine the effect of biodiversity loss on the risk of parasite transmission. In a general context, we intend to advance the understanding of the relationship between the structure and dynamics of ecological communities and zoonoses transmission cycles.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Paulo Sérgio D'Andrea / Rosana Gentile/ Thiago Cardoso.
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
2019 - 2021
Functional ecology of Trypanosoma cruzi infection
Land use changes and biodiversity loss critically disrupts ecosystem functioning and are major drivers of infectious disease outbreaks. Trypanosoma cruzi is a multi-host parasite whose epidemiology has changed due to the expansion of anthropogenic activities over natural areas. We aim to understand the ecological processes increasing parasite prevalence across multiple biological levels and to assess whether nature-based solutions could help regulate the prevalence of T. cruzi in wild hosts, thereby reducing overall transmission risk.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Paulo Sérgio D'Andrea / Samanta Xavier / Luana Dalfuente Fernandez
Funding: Fundação para o Desenvolvimento Científicio e Tecnológico em Saúde (FIOTEC).
2018 - 2019
Biodiversity Dynamics in Coevolutionary Meta-ecosystems (COMETA)
The project COMETA will develop approaches to join coevolutionary dynamics, meta-ecosystems and interaction networks, by synthesizing spatial and trait interaction data in species-rich meta-ecosystems. We aim to contribute to the understanding of coevolution and ecosystem function in species- and interaction-rich networks at different spatial scales. Our main challenge will be to integrate models across an increasing level of complexity. We will focus on implementing analytic tools and testing them with empirical patterns from datasets containing many species and their interactions, sites and traits.
Team: Carlos Melián - PI / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Julia Astegiano.
Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
One Health in the Amazon: socioecological integration for socio-biodiversity policies, ecosystem services and zoonosis prevention
This project aims to support One Health policies by developing a conceptual and methodological framework that strengthens the capacity to understand and predict population vulnerability to the emergence and persistence of zoonoses by integrating environmental, biological, and socio-economic dimensions, and translates co-produced knowledge—derived from the synthesis of scientific data and local knowledge—into accessible information for diverse stakeholders, thereby reinforcing intersectoral public policies at the interface of ecosystem services and human health in the Amazon.
Coordination: Cláudia Torres Codeço / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Gisele R. Winck / Milton Barbosa / Paulo Sérgio D`Andrea / Antonio Miguel Vieira Monteiro
Team: Alessandra Nava / Ana Paula Lula Costa / Izabel Cristina dos Reis / Maria Isabel Sobral Escada / Bruno Moreira de Carvalho / Andreimar Soares / Danilo Araújo Fernandes / Tiago Coutinho Cavalcante / Fabiana Lopes Rocha / Jorge Luiz do Nascimento / Marilene Brazil / Miguel Scarcello / Vivyanne Santiago Magalhães / Winnie Muniz Brum / André Luis Botelho de Moura / Gabriella Cruz / Deusilene Dall'Acqua / Jose Joaquin Carvajal Cortes / Rair Verde / Rosana Gentile
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
2025 - 2028
UNPAIR: Understanding parasite-host networks
This project aims to expand previous databases to include immunological and virulence traits and by constructing local and regional parasite–host meta-networks across biomes and ecoregions. Integrating empirical data with advanced statistical approaches, it will identify key patterns, map areas of high beta-diversity, and predict the impacts of climate and anthropogenic change on network dynamics.
Group Leaders: Gisele R. Winck / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Aniello Lampo
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
2024 - 2028
MOSAIC: Multi-site application of Open Science in the creAtion of healthy environments Involving local Communities
This project explores how Open Science, through improved data integration and participatory approaches, can empower citizens to understand and address the health and well-being impacts of ecosystem change and degradation. It hypothesizes that when communities are actively involved across the entire data cycle and share ethical, fair, and open knowledge practices, they are best equipped to interpret complex environmental–health information and develop locally appropriate adaptation and mitigation solutions. The MOSAIC project aims to implement open, multimodal, and replicable information ecosystems that enable communities to understand health risks, participate in public debate, and influence policy and decision-making.
Team: Emmanuel Roux (PI) / Consortium involving 15 partners from 7 different countries
Funding: Horizon Europe
2023 - 2028
Zoonotic disease emergence and the resilience of socio-ecological networks
In the face of the current biodiversity crisis and climate changes, we urge to understand both how species extinctions and introductions affect parasite transmission chains. This proposal approaches the problem in an interdisciplinary way, integrating the theoretical framework of ecology, evolution, epidemiology and social sciences with machine learning tools, complex network theory and mathematical modeling. Based on an innovative socio-ecological approach, we expect to develop effective nature-based solutions that maximize biodiversity conservation while minimize the risk of disease emergence. The anticipated insights on disease ecology can impact several aspects of economic and human development, including public health and, particularly, to inform policy-makers regarding the management of anthropogenic processes affecting biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and human welfare.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Gabriella Cruz
Funding: Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Talento Investigador)
2023 - 2025
Land use change, ecosystem resilience and zoonotic spillover risk
We propose an integrative landscape ecology approach to develop a synthetic understanding of biodiversity function and spillover risk in a context of both forest loss and forest recovery. The goal of our project is to understand how the reorganization of biodiversity on a changing planet affects human health. Our project integrates data from extensive field surveys to build predictive models that explore functional biodiversity, pathogen spillover risk and ecosystem resilience under a gradient of forest cover and landscape configuration, including also a gradient of forest recovery in the Atlantic Forest, one of the most threatened ecosystems of the world, and a hotspot for disease emergence.
Team: Paula Prist - PI / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Leandro Reverberi Tambosi / Florencia Sangermano / Marina Galvão Bueno / Mariana Moraes Vidal
Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF)
2022 - 2023
Parasite spillover in anthropogenic landscapes
This project examines how species extinctions and resilient hosts reshape parasite transmission and spillover risk under biodiversity loss and climate change. It integrates ecological and evolutionary theory with machine learning and adaptive network models to generate spatially explicit spillover hotspot predictions, and validates them with new field data to directly inform science-based policy.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI
Funding: Marie Sklodowska-Curie program, European Commission
2021 - 2022
Adaptive networks for predicting infectious diseases outbreaks
Although we currently have an increasing availability of data on biodiversity and parasite prevalence distributions, the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms driving the association between landscape anthropization and zoonotic disease emergence remain unclear. To advance knowledge, we need to understand the processes by which species are lost from altered communities and the role played by distinct species in parasite transmission cycles. The aim of this project is to develop analytical frameworks integrating models with empirical data to understand and predict the structure and dynamics of host and parasite interaction networks.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI
Funding: Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
2020 - 2025
Disease meta-community ecology: Moving from the dilution effect to dilution landscapes [link]
Anthropogenic changes in landscape structure are related to the process of parasite spillover and disease emergence. Yet, the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms associating landscape change and disease emergence remain unclear. We need to understand both the non-random sequences by which communities are disassembled, and whether resilient species tend to amplify or dilute parasite transmission. We will develop theoretical and analytical frameworks to understand the structure and dynamics of host-parasite interaction networks across space and time. We will parameterize mathematical models with empirical data in order to model and predict: the diversity and composition of parasite and host assemblages across the landscape; the probability of parasite-host interactions; the effect of network structure on parasite-host coevolutionary dynamics; and the spatial risk of parasite spillover. We will then test model predictions and assumptions by sampling new empirical data.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Mariana Moraes Vidal / Ana Paula Lula Costa / Gisele Winck / Gabriella Cruz / Pedro Bolanho Mendes
Funding: Instituto Serrapilheira
2020 - 2023
SARS-CoV-2 infection in wild and domestic animals in an Atlantic Forest area in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro
SARS-CoV-2 is believed to infect several mammals, such as bats, non-human primates, cats, ferrets and canids. However, we do not know whether these animals are able to maintain and transmit the virus. Epidemiological studies that elucidate which animals are possible hosts or permissive to infection are necessary. Understanding how an animal virus crosses species boundaries to infect humans so effectively is critical in preventing future zoonotic events, including the reemergence of COVID-19. The goal of this study is to analyze samples collected from domestic, synanthropic and wild animals from a Atlantic Forest remnant in the Rio de Janeiro city, to detect the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 and characterize the virus genome of the Coronaviridae family. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyzes of the viral genome will reveal the dynamics of this virus in animal populations. This study contributes to the understanding of the role of animals in the epidemiological cycle of SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging viruses of importance to public and animal health.
Team: Ricardo Moratelli Mendonça da Rocha - PI / Marina Galvão Bueno / Maria Ogrzewalska / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Rosana Gentile / Socrates Fraga da Costa Neto / Marina Carvalho Furtado / Sandro Antônio Pereira / Rodrigo Caldas Menezes / Paola Cristina Resende Silva / Maria Alice do Amaral Kuzel / Eduardo Rubião / Paulo Castiglioni Lara / Juana Oneida Huamán Charret Portugal / Judith Breuer / Sunando Roy / Rachel Williams
Funding: Foundation for Support of Research in the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ)
2020 - 2023
Integrating eco-evolutionary and socio-economic network data and models to understand and predict outbreaks of neglected tropical diseases
Global changes challenge scientists to build transdisciplinary knowledge that bridge theory, methods, and big data to sustain the integrative management of biodiversity, ecosystem services and socio-economic welfare. Fostering multi-institutional, transdisciplinary efforts to understand and predict outbreaks of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) represents an outstanding opportunity to combine biological and social science approaches to complex systems and promote science-based frameworks for policy-making and for optimizing the management of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and public health. We here propose an adaptive network approach to investigate the interface between biodiversity and public health in Brazil. In doing so, we aim to disentangle biological and socio-economic determinants of NTDs outbreaks based on (1) synthesis of existing big data to parameterize adaptive network models encompassing species-interactions and socio-economic network data describing biodiversity structure (which sustain ecosystem services) and the institutional network of public facilities (which sustain social welfare) at the local, regional, and/or national scales; (2) transdisciplinary theoretical integration built on the network approach to complex systems and, particularly, on the extension of the adaptive network approach to develop empirically-informed models predicting NTDs outbreaks; and (3) the articulation of the backbone of a multi-institutional network bridging research on biodiversity and public health and the strategic, integrative planning of public policies. Our proposal relies on the integrative approach provided by adaptive networks, which are a general class of dynamic network models that have been widely applied to study the structure and dynamics of complex systems in Biology, Economy, and the Social Sciences. Recently, adaptive network models have been proposed as the core of an integrative framework aimed to foster cooperative research involving theoretical and applied scientists interested in understanding, predicting and managing ecosystem services. We intend to extend this approach to investigate the intertwined dynamics of ecological networks, which depict ecosystem within which pathogens are embedded, and social networks, which depict the structure of public facilities and other determinants of health. Therefore, we expect to advance transdisciplinary theory building on the interface between biodiversity and public health by making publicly available biological and socio-economic big data associated with a transdisciplinary predictive framework that merges science, governance, and societal practices to strengthen ecosystem services and health policies..
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Paulo Sérgio D'Andrea - PI / Gisele Winck / Gabriella Cruz / Rosana Gentile / José Luís Passos Cordeiro / Paulo Roberto Guimarães Júnior / Rafael Raimundo - Co-coordinator / Carlos Melián / Paula Lemos-Costa / Ana Carolina Figueiredo Lacerda / Ana Elisa de Faria Bacellar Schittini / Eduardo Krempser da Silva / Elaine Folly Ramos / Elba Regina Sampaio de Lemos / Fabiana Lopes Rocha / Jorge Luiz do Nascimento / Marco Antonio Ratzsch de Andreazzi / Marina Galvão Bueno / Samanta Cristina das Chagas Xavier / Talita Lima do Nascimento / Darren Evans .
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) [link]
Connections: Research Group IRIS: Innovation for Resilience, Inclusion and Sustainability [link]
2020 - 2023
Ecosystem and Environmental Services as Health Services: Competing Land Use Trajectories for the Amazon Biome and their Link to Vector Borne Diseases
Vector borne diseases are an important cause of morbidity, mortality and economic cost in Brazil and other tropical countries. Their dynamics and persistence involve a complex interaction between parasites and multiple hosts: humans, arthropods and multiple vertebrate species. There is a large body of knowledge and data on the ecology, biogeography, and epidemiology of vector borne diseases such as malaria, Chagas, dengue, yellow fever, among others. Also, there is a mature ecological theory linking disease dynamics to biodiversity and the landscape. The goal of this proposal is to develop indicators for ecosystem services coupled to health and agricultural productivity in the Amazon. This region is under rapid change due to competing land use trajectories associated with different economic development pathways. Our team of natural, health and applied social scientists will use available spatial and temporal data for land use and land cover, disease incidence, maps of mosquito suitability, inventories of parasites, hosts and vectors biodiversity, socio-economic surveys, local productive and innovative systems to develop a classification and measurement protocol of ecosystem and environmental services specific for vector borne diseases. The protocol will be applied to the technological trajectories observed in the Amazon region. We will deliver a framework for assessing health ecosystem and environmental services that can be integrated with other views to better understand the health and ecosystem impacts of different development strategies captured by competing land use trajectories for the Amazon and contribute to an informed decision making process based on the best science and empirical evidence.
Team: Cláudia Torres Codeço - PI / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Mercedes Pascual / Andrew P Dobson / Monica da Silva-Nunes / Flávio Codeço Coelho / Raquel Martins Lana / Antonio Miguel Vieira Monteiro / Izabel Cristina dos Reis / Andres Baeza / Ana Paula Dal`Asta / Maria Isabel Sobral Escada / Danilo Araújo Fernandes / Danuzia Lima Rodrigues / Alexandre Bahia Gontijo Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). [link]
2019 - 2021
Functional ecology of zoonoses: Deciphering the epidemiological role of wild hosts in the transmission cycles of zoonoses in landscapes with different degrees of conservation.
Understanding how the structure of mammalian host communities is related to rates of infection by zoonotic agents is crucial to understanding the transmission cycles of zoonoses and predicting the emergence of outbreaks in human populations. Functional diversity allows us to understand the ecological role (function) of species in an ecosystem according to their morphological, physiological and behavioral characteristics (functional traits) and thus to predict the ecological impact resulting from their loss. In this sense, this project aims to develop theoretical models and innovative analytical methodologies to integrate theory with empirical data, advancing the field of the ecology of zoonoses in Brazil. We will propose quantitative and qualitative tools to identify which are the mammals functional traits that are relevant to their function in zoonoses transmission cycles and, thus, determine the effect of biodiversity loss on the risk of parasite transmission. In a general context, we intend to advance the understanding of the relationship between the structure and dynamics of ecological communities and zoonoses transmission cycles.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Paulo Sérgio D'Andrea / Rosana Gentile/ Thiago Cardoso.
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
2019 - 2021
Functional ecology of Trypanosoma cruzi infection
Land use changes and biodiversity loss critically disrupts ecosystem functioning and are major drivers of infectious disease outbreaks. Trypanosoma cruzi is a multi-host parasite whose epidemiology has changed due to the expansion of anthropogenic activities over natural areas. We aim to understand the ecological processes increasing parasite prevalence across multiple biological levels and to assess whether nature-based solutions could help regulate the prevalence of T. cruzi in wild hosts, thereby reducing overall transmission risk.
Team: Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi - PI / Paulo Sérgio D'Andrea / Samanta Xavier / Luana Dalfuente Fernandez
Funding: Fundação para o Desenvolvimento Científicio e Tecnológico em Saúde (FIOTEC).
2018 - 2019
Biodiversity Dynamics in Coevolutionary Meta-ecosystems (COMETA)
The project COMETA will develop approaches to join coevolutionary dynamics, meta-ecosystems and interaction networks, by synthesizing spatial and trait interaction data in species-rich meta-ecosystems. We aim to contribute to the understanding of coevolution and ecosystem function in species- and interaction-rich networks at different spatial scales. Our main challenge will be to integrate models across an increasing level of complexity. We will focus on implementing analytic tools and testing them with empirical patterns from datasets containing many species and their interactions, sites and traits.
Team: Carlos Melián - PI / Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi / Julia Astegiano.
Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
