photo by Kathryn Mercier
Carnaval Lab
Breaking molds in Biogeography
PhD Students
Caroline N. Flynn
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Carol is a Biology Ph.D. student at the CUNY Graduate Center, studying how functional traits interact with environmental conditions to shape tree community structure and survival in southeastern Amazonia.
Carol earned her B.Sc. in Ecology from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2019. She then completed an M.Sc. in Ecology and Evolution at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), where she investigated genetic variation and population structure in Hylodes fredi, a frog endemic to Ilha Grande, a continental island in southeastern Brazil.
Her current work integrates trait-based community assembly models, fine-root biomass distribution, species-level belowground partitioning, and drought-related mortality to advance the understanding of belowground ecology in tropical forests.
Rilquer Mascarenhas
rilquermascarenhas@gmail.com
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Rilquer graduated with a BS in Biology from Universidade Federal da Bahia in Salvador, Brazil, where he studied the phylogeography of the Grey-hooded flycatcher, an endemic passerine of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. During his master’s thesis, he focused on microevolutionary processes underlying the genomic adaptation of passerines to urban environment, specifically addressing behavioral adaptations to communication in noisy habitats.
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He is currently interested in investigating how ecological differences across species mediate their responses to environmental changes and affect patterns of genetic diversity. During his PhD, his goals are to integrate empirical genomic evaluation along with genetic simulation approaches to better understand the relative importance of neutral and ecological drivers of phylogeographic patterns in the community.
Kathryn Mercier
Kathryn graduated from the University of Central Florida with a MS in Biology working in Dr. Christopher Parkinson's lab. Her thesis was on the phylogeography of mole skinks with an emphasis on their conservation. During her time at UCF she also worked on evaluating the utility of remote sensing to track sea turtle nesting as well as the population genetics of eastern oysters in Apalachicola Bay, FL.
Generally, Kathryn is interested in understanding the drivers of biodiversity at a variety of levels. Specifically, she would like to develop a project understanding how past climate change has shaped patterns of diversity and use that information to make predictions of how biodiversity will shift in the future. She is also interested in working with managers to best protect biodiversity. Kathryn started her PhD in the Carnaval Lab in 2018, and was awarded the Levine Fellowship from the City College of New York.
Júlio César M. Chaves
jcmagalhaeschaves@gmail.com/jchaves@gradcenter.cuny.edu
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Júlio graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Zoology from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2022 where he studied the evolution of feeding habits in Heteroptera (Hemiptera). He then started an MS in Genetics in 2022 at the same university where he researched the evolution of Holoadeninae and the miniaturized frog genus Euparkerella under the supervision of Dr. Beatriz Mello (Laboratório de Bioinformática e Evolução Molecular) and Dr. Fábio Hepp (Laboratório de Anfíbios e Répteis).
He joined the Carnaval Lab in Fall 2024 as a PhD student at CUNY. He is interested in herpetology, evolution, and systematics of frogs. He aims to integrate genomics, SDMs, bioinformatics, and fieldwork to answer evolutionary questions.