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 FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

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 Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(USA),

Aarhus University Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Ut ...

(Denmark) and the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

(USA). He also holds a position as a Courtesy Associated Professor at

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...

, Miami, FL. Galetti's work has centered on analyzing 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 i ...

. He was awarded by WWF in 1998 and was a Tinker Fellow at

and a visiting professor at

Aarhus Universitet Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Utr ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

in 2017. He is currently one of th
Center for Research on Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change
directors in Rio Claro and Editor-in-Chief of Global Ecology and Conservation.

Early life and education

Galetti was born in Campinas, São Paulo during the

Military regime A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a strongman, or by a council of mi ...

in Brazil. Grandson of a Portuguese immigrant from

Madeira Island Madeira is a Portuguese island, and is the largest and most populous of the Madeira Archipelago. It has an area of , including Ilhéu de Agostinho, Ilhéu de São Lourenço, Ilhéu Mole (northwest). As of 2021, Madeira had a total population o ...

and son of

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

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 university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

to earn the

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

. Galetti is an alumni member of Robinson College. 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

State University of Campinas The University of Campinas (), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Established in 1962, Unicamp was designed from scratch as an integrated Research institute, researc ...

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

howler monkeys Howler monkeys (genus ''Alouatta'', monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropical realm, Neotropics and are among the largest of the New World monkey, platyrrhines along with the muriquis (''Brachyte ...

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

, and other fruit-eating animals. By following howler monkeys from dusk to dawn, he realized a myriad of

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 ...

that rely on fleshy fruits in the rainforest. In the University, he was inspired by his former professors and naturalists Ivan Sazima, Keith Brown, and Wesley R. Silva. Galetti was supervised by Dr. Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato, who compared the interactions between fruits and frugivores in this forest fragment. His work is a pioneer in understanding the complex network interactions between fruits and frugivores in hyper-diverse ecosystems. The small forest fragment near the university was his major laboratory where he spent most mornings watching birds and mammals eating fruits. In 1988, Galetti attended a talk by the Mexican ecologist Rodolfo Dirzo, who presents for the first time his ideas about the impact of

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

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

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in September 1992. From 1992 to 1996, he was enrolled in the Wildlife Research Group at Cambridge University, UK. He completed his master's degree in 15 months. At the

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, he worked at the Wildlife Research Group under David Chivers supervision. Other members of this lab. are Carlos Peres, Adriano Chiarello, Kim McConkey, Alfredo Cuarón.

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 A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance. The concept was introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. Keystone species play a critical role in main ...

instead of

primates Primates is an order of mammals, which is further divided into the strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids; and the haplorhines, which include tarsiers and simians ( monkeys and apes). Primates arose 74–63 ...

. 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 aça� ...

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

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

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 southern 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 betwee ...

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

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, Galetti's moved to Barito Ulu project in

Kalimantan Kalimantan (; ) is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area, and consists of the provinces of Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan. The non-Ind ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

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

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

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

toucans Toucans (, ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are most closely related to the Toucan barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five genera and over 40 different species. ...

and

in the wild. After four months in

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, he moved back to

and became a professor at

São Paulo State University São Paulo State University (Unesp, ) is a public university run by the São Paulo State Government, state government of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Unesp has a combined student body of over 45,000 spread among its 23 campuses. The ...

in 1998 where he works at the Department of Biodiversity. He was a visiting scientist at

Spanish National Research Council The Spanish National Research Council (, CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Its main objective is to develop and promote research that will help bring about scientific and techn ...

in 2007 and Thinker Professor at

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

ideas. In 2017 he was Visiting Faculty at Aarhus Universitet,

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, and is a courtesy Associated Professor at

. Galetti was the pioneer in publishing about

rewilding Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. It differs from other forms of ecological restoration in that rewilding aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems. It is also d ...

, particularly after visiting

Kruger National Park Kruger National Park () is a national park in South Africa covering an area of in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in the country's northeast. It extends from north to south and from east to west. The administrative headquarters are i ...

in South Africa. He was the first to discuss that most of the Brazilian

cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

is a

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

megafauna In zoology, megafauna (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and Neo-Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") are large animals. The precise definition of the term varies widely, though a common threshold is approximately , this lower en ...

defaunated ecosystem. Galetti has written on

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

for several journals including ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'', '' 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 i ...

'' and his contribution has been much debated by public media. Galetti has published more than 220 papers and 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 ...

. In 2019, 2020, 2021,2022,2023, and 2024 he was considered one of the top 1% of most influential scientists in the world

Clarivate Analytics Clarivate Plc is a British-American publicly traded analytics company that operates a collection of subscription-based services, in the areas of bibliometrics and scientometrics; business and market intelligence, and competitive profiling ...

. Galetti also received th
Jabuti Acadêmico Award
an
ABEU
Award for his book
Um Naturalista no Antropoceno
published by Editora Unesp.

Selected publications

Source: 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. Johnson, C. N., Balmford, A., Brook, B. W., Buettel, J. C., Galetti, M., Guangchun, L., & Wilmshurst, J. M. (2017). Biodiversity losses and conservation responses in the Anthropocene. Science, 356(6335), 270-275. 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. Guimaraes Jr, Paulo R., Mauro Galetti, and Pedro Jordano. "Seed dispersal anachronisms: rethinking the fruits extinct megafauna ate." PloS one 3.3 (2008): e1745.

Honors and awards

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based 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 th ...

(1998) * Most influential scientists (2019) * Most influential scientists (2020) * Most influential scientists (2021) * Most influential scientists (2022) * Most influential scientists (2023) * Most influential scientists (2024)

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 21st-century Brazilian biologists Brazilian ecologists Living people 1967 births