RESEARCH LINES

Sistematics and Biological Diversity– This line of research focuses on studies on systematics (taxonomy and phylogeny) of fungi, protist, plants, and animals, based on morphological and genetic characters, and ecological and biogeographic studies.

Conservation and Sustainable use of the Biodiversity – This line of research focuses on studies related to biodiversity conservation, the impact of pollutants on the biodiversity, the identification and use of genetic and biochemical resources with potential sustainable use, comprising basic and applied multidisciplinar research involving molecular, cellular and physiological aspects of biodiversity.

REQUIRED COURSES - MASTER'S DEGREE

Biostatistics – 45 hours/class

Types of Variables; Samping Theory; Descriptive Statistics; Probabilty Theory; Probability Distribution; Test of Hypothesis (Parametric and non-parametric); Regression and Correlation; Use of Softwares for Statistical Analysis.

Biological Diversity – 45 hours/class

What is biodiversity? Levels of biological diversity: from genes to ecossystems; Legislation of sampling and international protologues; Measuring biodiversity; Biological Collections; Causes and consequences of biodiversity loss.  Measurement of monitoring and preservation of biological diversity.

Community Ecology – 45 hours/class

Concepts and definitions of biological communities; organization and structure of communities; notions of guilds and functional structure of communities (functional groups). Communities organization with focus on descriptive, comparative, and experimental approaches; interspecific relationships: predation, parasitism, competition, chance and co-evolution. Environmental patterns on the organization of communities. Phylogenetic patterns in metacommunities. Phylogenetic tree in ecology. Metrics for structure and phylogenetic diversity. Phylogenetic structure of communities.

Principles of Phylogenetic Systematics – 45 hours/class

Schools of Systematic: Classic, Evolutionary, Phenetics, and Phylogenetic. The role of Willi Hennig on the history of Systematics.  Basic concepts in Phylogenetic Systematics: homology, homoplasy, simplsiomorphies, sinapomorphies, monophyletic, paraphyletic and polyphyletic groups. Cladograms. Methods in Phylogenetic Systematics: caracters and caracters state, homology, polarization and tree rooting. Phylogenetic reconstruction using molecular data. Methods to estimate phylogenetic trees: parcimony, maximum likelihood, Bayesian inference. Softwares in Phylogenetic Systematics.

Fundaments of Bioprospection – 45 hours/class

Bioprospection: concepts and legislation; Methods of bioprospection of natural products; prospection of insects, plants, and microrganisms; bioethics, sustainable vs non-sustainable use of biodiversity; participation of traditional societies during bioprospection; intelecutal property and technology transfer.

Seminars – 15 hours/class

Transdisciplinary space for the presentation and discussion of specific topics of interest to students, focused on the program's research lines, with the exchange of experience and socialization of proposals, activities and materials between faculty members and students.

Anthropogenic impacts in the biodiversity – 45 hours/class

Anthropic-derived impacts on ecosystems: deforestation; change of landscapes; impacts on habitats, species performance, population dynamics and ecological interactions; Changes and losses of genetic diversity; Generation, source and dynamics of pollutants of anthropogenic origin; Negative effects of pollutants on biodiversity; Methods and means for environmental monitoring and risk assessment.

ELECTIVE COURSES - MASTER'S DEGREE

• Biochemical bases and immunomodulatory properties of biodiversity - 45 hours/class
• Bioacoustics - 45 hours/class
• Soil Biodiversity - 45 hours/class
• Biodiversity and fauna conservation - 45 hours/class
• Biodiversity and Environmental Education - 45 hours/class
• Antimicrobial and antiparasite compounds derived from natural products - 45 hours/class
• Scientific Writing - 45 hours/class
• Ethnobotany - 45 hours/class
• Fundaments of Digital Scientific Illustration - 30 hours/class
• Conservation Genetics - 45 hours/class
• Teaching practices in Biodiversity - 30 hours/class
• Secondary Metabolism and natural products - 45 hours/class
• Natural Resources and oxidative stress - 45 hours/class
• Systematics of Culicomorpha (Insecta:Diptera) - 45 hours/class
• Taxonomy of Spermatophytes - 45 hours/class
• Special Topics in Biodiversity - 45 hours/class