Three research collaborators are visiting the lab. Two of these scholars are from El Colegio de La Frontera del Sur, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Dr. Rocio Rodiles and Dr. Miriam Soria Barreto are collaborating with Dr. Winemiller on fish community and food web ecology in the Rio Usumacinta Basin. The Usumacinta is the largest river basin in Mesoamerica, and also supports the highest fish diversity. Another member of the Usumacinta research team is Dr. Carmen Montaña of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and former doctoral student and postdoc with Dr. Winemiller. Dr. Rodiles is spending a sabbatical year at Texas A&M University, and Dr. Soria Barreto will return home in October to direct ongoing field activities for the project.
Also visiting the lab for several weeks is Dr. Pitagoras Piana from the Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná, Toledo, Paraná, Brazil. Dr. Piana will be working on an individual-based simulation model of food web dynamics and hydrology in the Upper Paraná River and floodplains in Brazil. His research is a major contribution to an international collaboration funded by the Brazilian government through the Universidade Estuadual de Maringá UEM), Paraná, Brazil. Team members from UEM are Dr. Angelo Agostinho, Dr. Luiz Gomes, and doctoral students Eduardo Cunha and Larissa Strictar.