Dr. Carnaval's lab studies spatial patterns of biodiversity and their underlying evolutionary and ecological processes. Her research team focuses on tropical biogeography, integrating genetic and genomic information, correlative species distribution models, current environmental data, paleoclimatic simulations, and data on functional traits, with the explicit aim of improving biodiversity prediction and conservation in tropical regions. Lab projects have focused on regions as diverse as Amazonia, the Colombian Andes, the Cerrado, and the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil. 
 

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Evolutionary Biogeography, Berkeley Univ. of California, 2010
Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, 2005
M.S. in Zoology, Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, 1997
Biological Sciences Licenciate, Univ. Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 1993

Evolution
Ecology and Evolution
Introduction to Biotechnology Lab
Scientific Communication
Biodiversity, Climate Change, and The Political Process (starting Fall 2020)

Ana is interested in spatial patterns of biodiversity and their underlying evolutionary and ecological processes, with the explicit aim of improving biodiversity prediction and conservation in tropical regions. Her research projects integrate genetic, functional, and spatial data. 

Selected Articles from 2010-2020

Notations used: *  CCNY student advisee, **  CCNY postdoctoral advisee, # non-CCNY student co-advisee (visiting student), +  minority student advisee

Rivera D+, Prates I*, Rodrigues MT, Carnaval AC. 2020. Effects of climate and geography on spatial patterns of genetic structure in tropical skinks. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 143, 106661. 

Brown JL**, Carnaval AC. 2019. A tale of two niches: methods, concepts, and evolution. Frontiers of Biogeography 11 (4): e44158.

Angeler DG, Allen CR, Carnaval A. 2019. Convergence science in the Anthropocene: Navigating the known and unknown. People and Nature 2:96–102. DOI: 10.1002/pan3.10069.

Prates I*, Paz A*, Brown JL**, Carnaval AC. 2019. Links between prey assemblages and poison frog toxins: A landscape ecology approach to assess how biotic interactions affect species phenotypes. Ecology and Evolution 9:14317–14329. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.5867.

Bernal XE, Rojas B, Pinto MA, Mendoza-Henao AM, Herrera-Montes A,… Paz A*….Carnaval AC, et al. 2019. Empowering Latina scientists. Science 363 (6429), 825-826.

Paz A*, Spanos Z*+, Brown J**, Lyra M, Haddad C, Rodrigues M, Carnaval AC. 2019. Phylogeography of Atlantic Forest glassfrogs (Vitreorana): when geography, climate dynamics and rivers matter. Heredity 122 (5), 545.

Prates I*, Pena A, Rodrigues M, Carnaval AC. 2018. Local adaptation in mainland anole lizards: integrating population history and genome-environment associations. Ecology and Evolution. 8 (23), 11932-11944.

Brown J*, Hill D, Dolan A, Carnaval AC, Haywood A. 2018. PaleoClim, high spatial resolution paleoclimate surfaces for global land areas. Nature Scientific Data 5, 180254.

Strangas, M.*, Navas, C. A., Rodrigues, M. T., & Carnaval, AC. 2018. Thermophysiology, microclimates, and species distributions of lizards in the mountains of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Ecography. 42 (2): 354-364.

Machado, C. B.#, Galetti Jr, P. M., & Carnaval, AC. 2018. Bayesian analyses detect a history of both vicariance and geodispersal in Neotropical freshwater fishes. Journal of Biogeography 45: 1313-1325.

Costa GC, Hampe A, Ledru M-P, Martinez P, Mazzochini GG, Shepard DB, Werneck FP, Mortiz C, Carnaval AC. 2018. Biome stability in South America over the last 30 kyr: inferences form long-term vegetation dynamics and habitat modelling. Global Ecology and Biogeography  27(3), 285-297.

Prates I*, Xue A, Brown JL**, Alvarado-Serrano DF, Rodrigues MT, Hickerson MJ, Carnaval AC. 2016. Inferring responses to climate dynamics from historical demography in Neotropical forest lizards. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 113(29): 7978-7985.

Prates I*, Rivera D*+, Rodrigues MT, Carnaval AC. 2016. A mid-Pleistocene rainforest corridor enabled synchronous invasions of the Atlantic Forest by Amazonian anole lizards'. Molecular Ecology 25 (20): 5174-5186.

Prates, I*, Hernandez L*#, Samelo RR, Carnaval AC. 2016. Molecular Identification and Geographic Origin of an Exotic Anole Lizard Introduced to Brazil, with Remarks on Its Natural History. South American Journal of Herpetology 11(3): 220-227.

Maestri R#, Fornel R, Gonçalves GL, Geise L, Freitas TRO, Carnaval AC. 2016. Predictors of intraspecific morphological variability in a tropical hotspot: comparing the influence of random and non-random factors. Journal of Biogeography 43(11), 2160-2172.

Saiter FZ#, Brown JL**, Thomas WW, Oliveira-Filho AT, Carnaval AC. 2016. Environmental correlates of floristic regions and plant turnover in the Atlantic Forest hotspot. Journal of Biogeography 43(12), 2322-2331. DOI:10.1111/jbi.12774.

Brown , JL**, Weber JJ, Alvarado-Serrano DF, Hickerson MJ, Franks SJ, Carnaval AC. 2016. Predicting the genetic consequences of future climate change: The power of coupling spatial demography, the coalescent, and historical landscape changes. American Journal of Botany 103: 153–163.

Prates I*, Rodrigues MT, Melo-Sampaio PR, Carnaval AC. 2015. Phylogenetic relationships of Amazonian anole lizards (Dactyloa): taxonomic implications, new insights about the phenotypic evolution and timing of diversification. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 82:258-268. 

Carnaval AC, Waltari E**, Rodrigues MT, Rosauer D, VanDerWal, Damasceno R, Prates I*, Strangas M*, Spanos Z*+, Rivera D*+, Pie MR, Firkowski CR, Bornschein MR, Ribeiro LF, Moritz C. 2014. Prediction of phylogeographic endemism in an environmentally complex biome. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London B. 281:20141461. 

Waltari E**, Schroeder R, McDonald K, Anderson RP, Carnaval A. 2014. Bioclimatic variables derived from remote sensing: assessment and application for species distribution modelling. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 10:1033-1042. 

Cook J, Edwards SV, Lacey E, Guralnick RP, Soltis PS, Soltis DE, Welch C, Bell KC, Galbreath KU, Himes C, Allen J, Heath TA, Carnaval AC, Cooper KL, Liu M, Hanken J, Ickert-Bondet S. 2014. Natural History Collections as Emerging Resources for Innovative Undergraduate Education. Bioscience 64:725-734.

Valdujo PH#, Carnaval ACOQ and Graham C. 2013. Environmental and historical correlates of anuran beta diversity in the Brazilian Cerrado. Ecography 36 (6):708-717. 

Navas C, Bevier C, Carnaval AC. 2012. Integrative and objective science is the best link between amphibian decline research and conservation on the ground. Alytes 29:119-132. 

Amaro RC#, Yonenaga-Yassuda Y, Rodrigues MT and Carnaval AC. 2012. Demographic processes in the montane Atlantic rainforest: molecular and cytogenetic evidence from the endemic frog Proceratophrys boiei. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 62 (3):880-888. 

For additional information, see www.carnavallab.org