Name: Marliz Arteaga

Title: PhD Student

Affiliation: University of Florida

Bio: Marliz is a PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Ecology at the University of Florida School of Natural Resources and the Environment. She is an environmental engineer and has an MS in sustainable development. She has worked on environmental issues with various international NGOs. She has also worked as a professor at Universidade Amazônica de Pando in Bolivia. Currently she is researching sociological impacts of dams in the Madeira River basin.

Name: Monise Busquets

Title: Ph.D. student in Environmental Science

Affiliation: Federal University of Tocantins, Indigenous Initiative, CAPES Science Without Borders: Gestão Participativa da Biodiversidade em Terras Indígenas Afetadas por Barragens Hidrelétricas na Amazônia legal

Bio: Monise Busquets is a communicator and doctoral student in Environmental Sciences at Federal University of Tocantins – UFT. Her research focuses on the relationship that riverine communities maintain with the water bodies. As an ethno-video maker, she directed a video focusing on the relationship between the Xerente indigenous people with the waters of the Tocantins river, specifically after the construction of the Lajeado hydroelectric dam

Name: Maira Irigaray Castro

Title: Human Rights & Environmental Lawyer/ Indigenous Rights Advocate/ Ph.D. student in Geography

Affiliation: University of Florida, Indigenous Initiative, University of Florida Biodiversity Institute (UFBI) Seed Grant: Incorporating traditional ecological knowledge and biocultural diversity into policy-making for infrastructure development across the Amazon

Bio: Maira Irigaray Castro is a human rights and environmental lawyer with a Masters in Comparative Law who worked for the past few years for the Nonprofit sector, both as a layer and advocate for indigenous peoples rights in the Amazon. Currently she is getting a Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Florida.

Name: Trey D. Crouch

Title: M.S. in Civil Engineering; PhD student with the UF Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment

Affiliation: University of Florida, Water Institute Graduate Fellow

Bio: Trey received his Bachelor´s and Master´s degrees in Civil Engineering, with emphasis in water resources and hydrology, from the University of Wyoming. For his master’s thesis, he examined the differences among the water balances of three small, tropical catchments with different land uses and covers. This work was done as a part of a greater research platform, the Agua Salud Project, assessing ecosystem services in the Panama Canal Watershed. Afterwards, Trey worked as an engineer and consultant in Colombia and Peru. He started at the University of Florida (UF) in 2015 as a UF Water Institute Graduate Fellow to pursue a PhD in Environmental Engineering Sciences. His current research interests are in eco-hydrological and sedimentological modeling, sustainable hydraulic design, and adaptive environmental assessment and watershed management.

Name: Neiva Cristina de Araujo

Title: Master in Law and doctoral student in the Graduate Program of Regional Development and Environment

Affiliation: Federal University of Rondônia, CAPES COOPI/ International Cooperation Program: Rede de cooperação internacional para pesquisa integrativa sobre efeitos socioambientais de barragens hidrelétricas na Amazônia legal: aprendendo com as experiências

Bio: 1999-2004 Law Degree in University of Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC), Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

2009-2011 MSc in Law – Human Rights, in University of Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC), Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

2013-2017  Doctoral in Regional Development and the Environment, in University of Rondônia (UNIR), Rondônia, Brazil.

Name: Adriano dos Guimarães de Carvalho

Title: Master in Civil Engineering and PhD student in Environmental Sciencese

Affiliation: Universidade Federal do Tocantins

Bio: Adriano is a civil engineer with a masters in Civil Engineering from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Currently, he is a doctoral student in Environmental Sciences at the Universidade Federal do Tocantins. He is a collaborator on the research and development project: “Mecanismo de transposição de peixes: atratividade e hidroacustica como ferramenta para redução de adensamento de cardumes a jusante (financiamento Investco S. A.).” Currently, he researches how to mitigate fish kills in turbines and spillways of hydroelectric dams.

Name: Maria Stella Siqueira De Carvalho

Title: Volunteer Collaborator

Affiliation: Buchholz High School

Bio: Maria Stella was born in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon, but moved to Gainesville, Florida, three years ago. She is a sophomore in high school, speaks three languages and is learning a fourth. Her dream is to study international relations and help to build a better world for all.

Name: Marília Hauser dos Santos

Title: Master’s in Aquatic Environments Continental Ecology and Phd student in Biodiversity and Biotechnology of the Legal Amazon.

Affiliation: Federal University of Rondônia, CAPES Pró-Amazônia, Biodiversidade e Sustentabilidade: Rede cooperativa de pesquisa e formação de recursos humanos para o estudo dos impactos dos empreendimentos hidrelétricos sobre recursos pesqueiros e a pesca na Amazônia, com enfoque ecossistêmico

Bio: She is biologist (2005) with master’s degree in Aquatic Environments Continental Ecology (2010) from the State University of Maringá. Nowadays she is a doctoral student of Biodiversity and Biotechnology of the Legal Amazon Program and collaborator researcher at the Ichthyology and Fisheries Laboratory of Federal University of Rondônia. She has worked with Fish Population Ecology, mainly in energy ecology (calorimetry), age and growth, and migration fish.

Name: Jacy Hyde

Title: PhD student

Affiliation: University of Florida, Water Institute Graduate Fellow

Bio: Jacy earned her Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She conducted field ecology research across a wide variety of taxa and ecosystems for four years prior to starting graduate school. She is currently a Water Institute Graduate Fellow at the University of Florida and is co-advised by Dr. Denis Valle and Dr. Stephanie Bohlman in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation. Her research addresses the impacts of dam infrastructure development, specifically the transmission line system, on terrestrial ecosystems in the Brazilian Amazon.

Name: May Lehmensiek

Title: M.S.

Affiliation: University of Florida, Water Institute Graduate Fellow

Bio: May holds a Bachelor in Environmental Engineering from the University of Applied Science in Bremen, Germany and a Masters in Environmental Engineering Science from the University of Florida with a specialization in Systems Ecology. For her master’s thesis she conducted an environmental economics assessment of tourism in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. May has worked for about ten years in the environmental field in Florida, managing water quality monitoring programs for surface waters and similar projects. She returned to the University of Florida in 2015 as a Water Institute Graduate Fellow to pursue a PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology. Her research interest focuses on the occupational displacement of fishermen by dams or by changes in fishing regulations. By understanding better the different meanings that the fishing occupation has for fishermen, May hopes to better understand the impact of occupational displacement and negative effects can be mitigated.

Name: Adila Lima

Title: Master’s in Environmental Sciences and Ph.D. student in Environmental Sciences

Affiliation: Federal University of Tocantins, CAPES COOPI/ International Cooperation Program: Rede de cooperação internacional para pesquisa integrativa sobre efeitos socioambientais de barragens hidrelétricas na Amazônia legal: aprendendo com as experiências

Bio: Adila Lima, is an administrator and works at the Federal University of Tocantins. She is a Master in Environmental Sciences and Ph.D. student in Environmental Sciences and her research is related to the processes of environmental licensing and social participation in decisions in developmental works in the Amazon. Their posts will be related to the impacts of hydroelectric plants in the Amazon, specifically in the Tocantins River.

Name: Maria Alice Leite Lima

Title: Master in Fishery Sciences and doctoral student in the Graduate Program of Regional Development and Environment

Affiliation: Federal University of Rondônia, CAPES COOPI/ International Cooperation Program: Rede de cooperação internacional para pesquisa integrativa sobre efeitos socioambientais de barragens hidrelétricas na Amazônia legal: aprendendo com as experiências

Bio: Maria Alice Lima has a Master in Fishery Sciences Tropic at the Federal University of Amazonas. Conducts research about fish and fisheries management. She is a researcher collaborated of Ictiology and Fisheries Laboratory (UNIR) and member of the Ecoporé (NGO). She works with ecosystem modeling, and integrative analysis of environmental and social impacts of dams and fisheries management in the Amazon.

Name: Adriana Francisca de Medeiros

Title: Master in Education and PhD student

Affiliation: Federal University of Rondônia, Indigenous Initiative, CAPES Science Without Borders: Gestão Participativa da Biodiversidade em Terras Indígenas Afetadas por Barragens Hidrelétricas na Amazônia legal

Bio: Adriana Francisca de Medeiros is a pedagogue, master in education and doctoral student in the Environment and Regional Development Graduate program of Federal University of Rondônia (UNIR). Her research is focused on indigenous lands affected by hydroelectric dams in the State of Rondônia, Brazilian Amazon. Adriana plan to collaborate on this blog focusing on indigenous peoples and social-environmental impacts of large infrastructural projects.

Name: Esther Mesquita

Title: PhD Student

Affiliation: Universidade Federal do Pará, CAPES Science without Borders

Bio: Oceanographer with a Master’s degree in Aquatic Ecology and Fisheries from the Federal University of Pará, currently PhD student in the same program. It operates in the area of fishing and fishery resources in the Amazon, developing research on the Xingu River since 2012, currently seeks to develop works with fishing in the indigenous territory of the Xingu River.

Name: Suzette Molina

Title: Undergraduate Assistant

Affiliation: Native Nations Climate Adaptation Program

Bio: Suzette is an enrolled member of both the Pascua Yaqui and Paiute Tribes of the West and is from Tucson, AZ. She is currently double majoring in public health and nutritional science at The University of Arizona. Suzette has a strong personal interest in environment health and hopes to focus future research efforts on this intersect. Being a part of the Native American community, Suzette feels she has a responsibility to sustain resources on and off reservations for generations to come.

Name: Mac David da Silva Pinto

Title: PhD Student in Biodiversity and Biotechnology of the Legal Amazon

Affiliation: College of Biological Sciences, Universidad Federal do Tocantins

Bio: Mac David is a biologist and teaches the Biological Sciences course at the Universidade Federal do Tocantins. He has a masters in Environmental Sciences and is a PhD student in Biodiversity and Biotechnology of the Legal Amazon. His research focuses on effects of reservoirs on functional diversity of fishes. He is interested in the the impacts of hydroelectric dams and educational interventions in the public schools of Tocantins.

Name: Lynn Rae

Title: M.S. Candidate, School of Natural Resources and the Environment

Affiliation: University of Arizona, Institute of the Environment, Southwest Climate Science Center Fellow

Bio: Lynn is a graduate student in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona and a Southwest Climate Science Center Fellow. For the past three years, she has conducted outreach and provided climate change adaptation planning support to tribes across the southwestern United States. Lynn was also a primary researcher and preparer of the Southwest Tribal Climate Change Assessment, a U.S. Department of the Interior-funded study completed in 2017. Her interdisciplinary graduate research focuses on tribal climate change adaptation planning and includes an assessment of adaptive management strategies, resources and collaborative approaches utilized by two Native Nations in the Pacific Northwest to increase their resilience and capacity. In addition to her graduate work, Lynn has several years of experience working as an environmental consultant and has engaged with tribal governments, federal, state and local agencies and organizations on a wide range of natural resource and policy issues involving large-scale mine and energy projects.

Name: Ariana Cella Ribeiro

Title: PhD Student in Biodiversity and Biotechnology (PPG-Bionorte)

Affiliation: Federal University of Rondônia (UNIR), CAPES Pró-Amazônia, Biodiversidade e Sustentabilidade: Rede cooperativa de pesquisa e formação de recursos humanos para o estudo dos impactos dos empreendimentos hidrelétricos sobre recursos pesqueiros e a pesca na Amazônia, com enfoque ecossistêmico

Bio: Degree in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Rondonia (UNIR, 2006) and Master’s Degree in Freshwater Biology and Fisheries by the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA, 2010). PhD student in PPG Bionorte Amazon Network. Collaborator researcher at Ichthyology and Fisheries Laboratory (LIP/UNIR) and Ação Ecológica Guaporé (NGO) member.

Name: Daniel Rondinelli Roquetti

Title: PhD candidate

Affiliation: Graduate Program in Environmental Science (Procam), Institute of Energy and Environment of the University of São Paulo (IEE-USP), NSF-CNH-RCN Project: National Science Foundation – Coupled Natural-Human Systems – Research Coordination Networks: Amazon Dams Network: Advancing Integrative Research and Adaptive Management of Social-Ecological Systems Transformed by Hydroelectric Dams

Bio: Daniel Rondinelli Roquetti is PhD candidate at the Graduate Program in Environmental Science (Procam), Institute of Energy and Environment of the University of São Paulo (IEE-USP). He develops research on the local impacts caused by large hydropower plants. His most recent research efforts focus on the social-ecological consequences of development forced displacement and resettlement in the Madeira River hydroelectric complex.

Name: Alexandra Sabo

Title: M.A.

Affiliation: University of Florida Department of Geography, Water Institute Graduate Fellow

Bio: Alli is currently a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography at the University of Florida working with Dr. Cynthia Simmons.  Her work focuses on understanding the ways that resistance and collective organizing are impacted by specific forms of governance associated with hydropower development as a climate change mitigation strategy, namely through the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism.  Drawing on feminist theory as well as contentious politics and environmental governance literatures, her work seeks to understand how governance strategies impact communities, the way they organize, and to understand how collective organizing and resistance impact governance, using the Santo Antonio and Jirau dams on the Madeira river as a case study.  Alli earned her Master of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of Arizona, studying anti-dam organizing against the Santo Antonio and Jirau dams.

Name: Mariza Fernandes Souza

Title: Biologist, Masters in Environmental Sciences

Affiliation: Universidade Federal do Tocantins

Bio: Mariza graduated from the Universidade Federal do Tocantins (UFT) with a bachelors in Biological Sciences in 2016. She is currently a masters student in the Environmental Sciences program at UFT. Her research is on fisheries and fish ecology in reservoirs with an emphasis on traditional knowledge of fishermen.

Name: A. Christine Swanson

Title: PhD Student in School of Forest Resources and Conservation

Affiliation: University of Florida, Water Institute Graduate Fellow

Bio: Christine is a Ph.D. student working with Drs. Stephanie Bohlman and Denis Valle in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation. Her work focuses on understanding how dams affect change in floodplains and riparian forest in the Tocantins and Araguaia River watersheds. Christine has a background in conservation biology, remote sensing, and geospatial analysis and earned her Master’s in Biology from the University of Central Florida in 2016. She also holds a Master’s of Arts in Teaching and a Bachelor’s of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies from the same institution.

Name: Kelsie Timpe

Affiliation: University of Florida, UF Seed Project: Designing a framework for integrative research on dams, environment and society in the Amazon

Bio: I am currently getting my master’s in Interdisciplinary Ecology with a concentration in Ecological Engineering from the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at UF. My undergraduate wast in Environmental Engineering also from UF. My research is on environmental flows and hydrological changes due to hydroelectric dams in the Amazon. The relationship between hydrology and ecology is a big research interest of mine.