Caroline C. Vasconcelos

Caroline C. Vasconcelos

Research Fellow

INPA Herbarium, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Brazil

I am a Forest Engineer from the State University of Amapá (UEAP), with a Master’s and Doctorate in Botany from the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA). During my undergraduate studies, I collaborated for four years on research projects coordinated by Embrapa Amapá, working on plant-pathogen interaction epidemiology, morphological and physiological aspects of seeds, tree seedling growth, and forest ecology and management focused on the multiple uses of floodplain forests in the Amazon estuary.

I was a scholarship researcher (CNPq/DTI-A) in the Ecology, Monitoring, and Sustainable Use of Wetlands group (MAUA/INPA), where I gained experience in floristic inventories, botanical identification, and spectral data collection and functional traits of tree species in Amazonian ecosystems (terra-firme, igapó, and campinarana).

Since 2015, I have been a collaborating researcher at the Seed Laboratory (LabSem/INPA), conducting and co-supervising morphological and taxonomic studies on Sapotaceae, Lecythidaceae, and Copaifera (Fabaceae) in the Amazon.

I am currently a scholarship researcher (FAPEAM/AT-III) at the INPA Herbarium, working on the (SpectraPop) project, which aims to popularize the use of infrared spectroscopy in the recognition of commercially important tree species.

I also collaborate with national and international networks and working groups, such as the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN), Tropical Seed Trait Database (TSTD), and International Herbarium Spectral Digitization (IHerbSpec), in addition to maintaining collaborations with researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany), the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (PDBFF/INPA), and Embrapa Amapá.

My main research interests include taxonomy and systematics of Amazonian tree flora (especially Sapotaceae); spectroscopy applied to species identification; species distribution modeling (SDM) to assess the impacts of climate change on plant distribution at multiple spatial scales; floristic studies; and forest ecology. Pronouns: she/her/hers.

Download my CV (en) or CV (pt-br) for full details.

Interests
  • Sapotaceae
  • Taxonomy and systematics
  • Plant spectroscopy
  • Seedling morphology
  • Floristic studies
  • Amazonian flora
  • Herbarium
  • Tropical forest ecology
  • Species distribution modeling
  • Climate change
Education
  • Doctoral degree in Biological Sciences (emphasis in Botany), 2018 - 2024

    Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA)

  • Master's degree in Biological Sciences (emphasis in Botany), 2015 - 2017

    Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA)

  • Bachelor's degree in Forest Engineering, 2010 - 2014

    Universidade do Estado Amapá (UEAP)

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