World-renowned researchers in the field of Botany will be at the PHENO2025 Conference in Brazil

cbioclimamidia
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The speakers will be meeting from July 28th to August 1st, in São Pedro/SP

By Emerson José

Seven scientists from leading universities around the world will be the keynote speakers at PHENO2025, the sixth Conference held by the Phenology Commission of the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB). The Conference is supported by CBioClima (Center for Research in Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change), based at the Institute of Biosciences of Unesp in Rio Claro/SP, and other institutions.

The aim of the conference is to bring together experts to advance the field of phenology and contribute to more sustainable ecosystems and societies. Phenology is the study of the life cycles of plants and animals, focusing on key events such as flowering, fruiting, migration and reproduction, and how these events relate to climatic and environmental conditions.

Changes in different biomes due to climate change may indicate the disappearance of species and the emergence of others. If a medicinal plant, essential for the production of a certain medicine, for example, disappears from a biome, traditional knowledge may lose its basis.

Prof. Dr. Patricia Morellato is one of the speakers at PHENO2025. She researches phenology and temporal ecology of tropical vegetation, pollination biology, seed dispersal and biodiversity conservation. Morellato is a professor at the Institute of Biosciences at Unesp in Rio Claro/SP and director of the Center for Research in Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change (CBioClima). She is also the coordinator of the first tropical phenology network in Brazil using digital cameras.

Another speaker is Professor Eric Fuchs Castillo from the University of Costa Rica. He is an expert in population genetics, genetic analysis of crop species, conservation genetics, molecular ecology and forest ecology.

Geetha Ramaswami, from the Nature Conservation Foundation – India, is an ecologist who focuses on invasive plants and plant phenology. She currently leads the citizen science project SeasonWatch, which covers the whole of India and aims to understand the seasonality of trees through large-scale scientific documentation.

Researcher Jin Wu (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China) is an expert in ecosystems, phenology, trees, monitoring, imaging spectroscopy, photosynthesis, vegetation and remote sensing.

Lecturer Jennifer Fitchett from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) is renowned for research in biometeorology, climatology, phenology, paleoclimatology and climate change.

Mexican Jorge Cortes Flores from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico works in community ecology, reproductive phenology, pollination, restoration ecology and seed dispersal.

Furthermore, speaker Susanne Jochner-Oette from the Catholic University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt, Eichstatt, Germany, is a researcher of urban phenological studies, such as: the effects of short- and long-term air pollutants on plant phenology and leaf characteristics.

Finally, the event emphasizes global collaboration and the integration of traditional knowledge. The event will deepen the exchange of information and studies that demonstrate how changes in phenological patterns of early flowering or unregulated migrations, for example, signal the impact of global warming on ecosystems.