Cleber J. N. Chaves
Ph.D.
About me
Cleber J. N. Chaves (Ph.D.)
I am an eco-evolutionary biologist interested in understanding how ecological interactions, dispersal, and environmental variation shape organisms’ thermal responses and species distributions across space and time. My research asks how populations and species cope with environmental heterogeneity — and how these responses scale up to influence biogeographic patterns and vulnerability to climate change.
I hold a B.Sc. in Biology (2011) and an M.Sc. in Plant Biology (2013) from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Biodiversity (2019) from São Paulo State University (Brazil). During my doctoral training, I also conducted a six-month research stay at Technische Universität Dresden (Germany).
A central focus of my current research is the evolution of thermal tolerance and thermal strategies in Pitcairnia flammea, a bromeliad that exemplifies adaptive radiation within the family. Distributed patchily across inselbergs and spanning strong climatic, elevational, and hydric gradients in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, P. flammea provides a powerful natural system to study local adaptation, dispersal constraints, and the balance between thermal canalization and plasticity. By integrating demographic, physiological, and ecological data, my work aims to connect individual-level thermal responses to broader patterns of species persistence, range limits, and extinction risk under climate change.
My broader research background includes:
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Thermal tolerance and morphological adaptations
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Species interactions, including competition and facilitation
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Epiphyte–host tree dynamics
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Species Distribution Modeling (SDM)
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Individual/Agent-Based modeling (IBM/ABM)
I am currently open to new collaborations and opportunities that advance our understanding of eco-evolutionary responses to environmental change.
Research
My current research effort covers the following two main topics:
I investigate how organisms respond to spatial and temporal variation in temperature, with an emphasis on how past and ongoing climate change shapes physiological thermal tolerance, thermal strategies, and species distributions. My work focuses primarily on plants and integrates field observations, experiments, and modeling to link individual thermal responses to population persistence and biogeographic patterns.
Epiphytes
I study how biotic interactions and landscape context drive the occurrence, abundance, and functional composition of epiphyte communities. My research explores how interactions across multiple scales influence epiphyte population dynamics, community assembly, and responses to environmental change, with particular emphasis on:
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Host tree-epiphyte interactions
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Epiphyte-epiphyte interactions
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Population dynamics of weeds
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Individual-based modeling
Thermal responses
