Filipe Machado França

Filipe Machado França

Filipe França is an applied ecologist interested in dung beetles from tropical forests. He is a Senior Research Associate of the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University (UK), the vice-coordinator of the long-term ecological research program (PELD) of the Sustainable Amazon Network (PELD-RAS; Brazil), and a member of the steering committee of the RAS Network. He has been investigating dung beetles in the Brazilian Amazon since 2008, when he visited forests and savannas in the region for the first time. During his PhD at the Federal University of Lavras (Brazil) and Lancaster University (UK), he investigated how selective logging influence dung beetle diversity and associated ecological processes within Amazonian forests. Between 2018 and 2020, he was an associate researcher at Embrapa Amazônia Oriental and the Federal University of Pará, in Belém (Brazil). His recent most recent studies have explored how human activities and climatic stressors are threating the Amazonian dung beetle fauna and associated ecosystem functions such as seed dispersal. He is also interested in scientific communication and spreading the good dung beetle word to non-academic people.

PUBLICATIONS:

1 – França F., Ferreira J., Vaz-de-Mello F., Maia L., Louzada J., Oliveira V., Braga R., Palmeira A.F., Berenguer E., Fadini R., Barlow J. (2020). El Niño impacts on human-modified tropical forests: consequences for dung beetle diversity and associated ecological processes. Biotropica. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/btp.12756

2 – França F., Benkwitt C., Peralta G., Robinson J., Graham N., Tylianakis J., Berenguer E., Lees A., Ferreira J., Louzada J., Barlow, J. (2020). Climate extremes, climate change and local disturbances as interacting drivers of tropical ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2019.0116

3 – Barlow J., França F., Gardner T., Hicks C., Lennox G., Berenguer E., Castello L., Economo E.,
Ferreira J., Guénard B., Leal C., Isaac V., Lees A., Paar C., Wilson S., Young P., Graham N. (2018). The future of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0301-1

4 – França F., Louzada J., Barlow J. (2018). Selective logging effects on ‘brown world’ faecal-detritus pathway in tropical forests: A case study from Amazonia using dung beetles. Forest Ecology and Management. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112717312434?via%3Dihub

5 – Carvalho R., Frazão F., Ferreria R., Louzada J., Cordeiro L. França F. (2018). Dung burial by roller
dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae): An individual and specific-level study. International Journal
of Tropical Insect Science. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-tropical-insect-science/article/dung-burial-by-roller-dung-beetles-coleoptera-scarabaeinae-an-
individual-and-specificlevel-study/448E7798B74877E49D3654723F0B6A60

Selected outreach articles/ blog posts/ media outlets
1 – Mongabay (2020): https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/extreme-el-nino-drought-fires-
contribute-to-amazon-insect-collapse-study/

2 – The Conversation (2020): https://theconversation.com/dung-beetles-help-rainforests-regrow-
but-extreme-drought-and-wildfires-in-the-amazon-are-killing-them-off-130444

3 – O Globo (2020; Portuguese): https://oglobo.globo.com/sociedade/el-nino-desmatamento-
ameacam-besouros-da-amazonia-24241261

4 – G1 (2020; Portuguese): https://g1.globo.com/natureza/noticia/2020/02/13/pesquisa-aponta-
reducao-drastica-de-besouros-na-amazonia.ghtml

5 – O Tempo (2020; Portuguese): https://www.otempo.com.br/interessa/incendios-contribuiram-
para-o-colapso-de-besouros-1.2296216

6 – Europa Press (2020; Spanish): https://www.europapress.es/ciencia/habitat-y-clima/noticia-nino-
contribuye-colapso-insectos-amazonia-20200210120538.html

7 – GreenReport (2020; Italian): http://www.greenreport.it/news/aree-protette-e-biodiversita/el-
nino-e-la-scomparsa-degli-scarabei-stercorari-nellamazzonia-sempre-piu-modificata-dalluomo/

8 – Mongabay (2019): https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/all-you-need-is-human-feces-the-
strange-world-of-dung-beetle-sampling/

9 – E360-Yale: https://e360.yale.edu/digest/hotter-drier-el-ninos-linked-to-insect-decline-in-the-
amazon-study-finds

10 – Mongabay (2017): https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/selective-logging-reduces-
biodiversity-disrupts-amazon-ecosystems-study/