Mauro Galetti. is a Brazilian ecologist and conservation

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

. He is a full professor in the Department of Biodiversity at the

Universidade Estadual Paulista The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

Rio Claro, São Paulo Rio Claro is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The elevation is 613 m. It was incorporated as the village of '' São João Batista do Ribeirão Claro'' in 1827, and this incorporation is celebrated every year on June 24 as a municipal h ...

and has worked at Stanford University (USA), Aarhus University (Denmark) and the University of Miami (USA). Galetti's work has centered on the analysis of the ecological and evolutionary consequences of

defaunation Defaunation is the global, local or functional extinction of animal populations or species from ecological communities. The Human overpopulation, growth of the human population, combined with advances in harvesting technologies, has led to more int ...

. He was awarded by WWF in 1998 and was a Tinker Fellow at Stanford University and a visiting professor at

Aarhus Universitet Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

, Denmark in 2017.

Early life and education

Galetti was born in Campinas, São Paulo during the

Military regime A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

in Brazil. Grandson of a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

immigrant from Madeira Island and son of

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

teacher, Galetti was always influenced by his brother Marcos Rodrigues and his uncle Pedro Manoel Galetti Jr. who are both

biologists A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...

. He grew up in Campinas, São Paulo until the age of 25 when he moved to

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

for earning the

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

. Galetti is alumni member of

Robinson College Robinson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, it is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both undergraduate and graduate students of b ...

. During his childhood he studied in a suburban school until his parents moved him to Imaculada Coração de Maria a prestigious private school. He enrolled in the Biology course at

Universidade Estadual de Campinas The State University of Campinas ( pt, Universidade Estadual de Campinas), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Unicamp is consistently ranked among the top universities in Brazil and Latin ...

in 1986. Since his early days in the university he notice that most classes were uninteresting to him so he decided to spend most of his mornings in the forest fragment nearby Mata de Santa Genebra, Campinas, São Paulo. There he start observing and studying

howler monkeys Howler monkeys (genus ''Alouatta'', monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropics and are among the largest of the platyrrhines along with the muriquis (''Brachyteles''), the spider monkeys (''Atele ...

squirrels Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...

, and other fruit-eating animals. His first project was to follow a group of howler monkeys from dusk to dawn, but because howlers spend most of their time sleeping, he decided to also study other

frugivores A frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance and ...

in the forest. In the University, he was inspired by his former professors and naturalists Ivan Sazima, Keith Brown, Wesley R. Silva and his former Master supervisor Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato to study deep the interactions between fruits and frugivores in this forest. The small forest fragment near the university was his major laboratory where he spent most of his mornings watching birds and mammals eating fruits. In 1988, Galetti attended a talk by the Mexican ecologist Rodolfo Dirzo, who present for the first time his ideas about the impact of

on plant communities. This talk influence him for the rest of his career. Galetti's enrolled in the Master program at

in 1990 and by August 1992 (after 18 months) he received a Master in Science diploma and move to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

in September 1992. From 1992 to 1996, he was enrolled in the Wildlife Research Group at Cambridge University, UK.

Career

Galetti got his Ph.D. at

in 1996. In Cambridge, Galetti's was supervised by the primatologist David J. Chivers. At this time Galetti met a young primatologist Carlos A. Peres who influence him to study keystone species instead of primates. He decides to test the concept of keystone species in tropical forests for the first time, comparing the abundance of fruit-eating birds and mammals in areas with a dense population of palms

Euterpe edulis ''Euterpe edulis'', commonly known as juçara, jussara (an archaic alternative spelling), açaí-do-sul or palmiteiro, is a palm species in the genus '' Euterpe''. It is now predominantly used for hearts of palm. It is closely related to the aç ...

with neighbor sites without palms. During their last year in Cambridge he spend a week in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

with Pedro Jordano which changed his life. Jordano was a young scientist expert in frugivory and

seed dispersal In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors ...

who took Galetti to

Sierra de Cazorla Sierra de Cazorla is a mountain range of the Prebaetic System in the Jaén Province in Spain. It is named after the town of Cazorla. Its highest point is the 1,847 m high Gilillo peak. Geography This mountain range is located between the Sierr ...

and teach him about the Mediterranean ecosystems. Before coming back to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Galetti's moved to Barito Ulu project in Kalimantan,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. He decided to spend a year studying for the first time seed dispersal by

hornbills Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandibl ...

and sunbears, but after 3 months, a civil war irrupted in Indonesia and he decided to return to Brazil. He was one of the first ecologists to study

toucans Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five g ...

and

in the wild. After four months in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

he moved back to Brazil and became a professor at

in 1998 where he works at the Department of Biodiversity. He was a visiting scientist at Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas in

in 2007 and Thinker Professor at Stanford University from 2008-to 2009 at Center for Latin American Studies. During his period in Stanford, he was associated with Professor Rodolfo Dirzo, the father of

ideas. In 2017 he was Visiting Faculty at Aarhus Universitet, Denmark where he collaborated intensively with Dr. Jens-Christian Svenning. From 2020 to 2022 he was an associate professor at the University of Miami, FL, USA. Galetti was the pioneer in publishing about

rewilding Rewilding may refer to: *Rewilding (conservation biology), the return of habitats to a natural state **Rewilding Europe Rewilding Europe is a non-profit organisation based in Nijmegen, Netherlands, working to create rewilded landscapes through ...

, particularly after visiting Kruger National Park in South Africa. The realized that most of the Brazilian

cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the ...

is a

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

megafauna defaunated ecosystem. Galetti has written on

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

for a number of journals including ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

'', '' PLOS ONE'' and ''

Biological Conservation Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an int ...

'' and his contribution has been much debated by public media. Galetti has published more than 220 papers in was the Editor of ''Biological Conservation'' for Latin America In 2013, his paper was Highly Recommended by the

Faculty of 1000 F1000 (formerly "Faculty of 1000") is an open research publisher for scientists, scholars, and clinical researchers. F1000 offers a different research evaluation service from standard academic journals by offering peer-review after, rather than b ...

. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 he was considered one of the top 1% most influential scientists in the world Clarivate Analytics.

Selected publications

Dirzo, R., H. S. Young, M. Galetti, G. Ceballos, N. J. B. Isaac, and B. Collen. 2014. Defaunation in the Anthropocene. Science 345:401-406. Galetti, M., R. Guevara, M. C. Cortes, R. Fadini, S. Von Matter, A. B. Leite, F. Labecca, T. Ribeiro, C. S. Carvalho, R. G. Collevatti, M. M. Pires, P. R. Guimaraes, P. H. Brancalion, M. C. Ribeiro, and P. Jordano. 2013. Functional Extinction of Birds Drives Rapid Evolutionary Changes in Seed Size. Science 340:1086-1090. Galetti, M., E. Eizirik, B. Beisiegel, K. Ferraz, S. Cavalcanti, A. C. Srbek-Araujo, P. Crawshaw, A. Paviolo, P. M. Galetti, Jr., M. L. Jorge, J. Marinho-Filho, U. Vercillo, and R. Morato. 2013. Atlantic Rainforest's Jaguars in Decline. Science 342:930-930. Galetti, M. and R. Dirzo. 2013. Ecological and evolutionary consequences of living in a defaunated world. Biological Conservation 163:1-6. Bueno, R. S., R. Guevara, M. C. Ribeiro, L. Culot, F. S. Bufalo, and M. Galetti. 2013. Functional Redundancy and Complementarities of Seed Dispersal by the Last Neotropical Megafrugivores. PLoS ONE 8:e56252. Hansen, D. M. and M. Galetti. 2009. The forgotten megafauna. Science 324:42-43. Galetti, M., H. C. Giacomini, R. S. Bueno, C. S. S. Bernardo, R. M. Marques, R. S. Bovendorp, C. E. Steffler, P. Rubim, S. K. Gobbo, C. I. Donatti, R. A. Begotti, F. Meirelles, R. d. A. Nobre, A. G. Chiarello, and C. A. Peres. 2009. Priority areas for the conservation of Atlantic forest large mammals. Biological Conservation 142:1229-1241.

Honors and awards

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

(1998) * Most influential scientists (2019) * Most influential scientists (2020) * Most influential scientists (2021)

References

Interview with Dr. Galetti - Terra da Gente

External links

Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Biodiversidade, UNESP, Brazil
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galetti, Mauro Brazilian scientists Rewilding advocates People from Campinas Brazilian biologists Brazilian ecologists Living people 1967 births