publications

2025

1. Upscaling effects on infectious disease emergence risk emphasize the need for local planning in primary prevention within biodiversity hotspots

   R. L. Muylaert, D. A. Wilkinson, E. I. Dwiyanti, and 1 more author

   Scientific Reports, 2025
2. Spatial risk of pathogen transmission from cattle to vulnerable and endangered wild bovids in Thailand

   Wantida Horpiencharoen, Jonathan C Marshall, Renata L Muylaert, and 2 more authors

   Conservation Science and Practice, 2025
3. Leptospirosis in Campinas, Brazil: The interplay between drainage, impermeable areas, and social vulnerability

   Thiago Salomão Azevedo, Shahista Nisa, Stuart Littlejohn, and 1 more author

   PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2025
4. Predicting current and future distributions of Malagasy bats: Implications for management of coronavirus spillover

   Riana V. Ramanantsalama, David A. Wilkinson, Renata L. Muylaert, and 2 more authors

   One Health, Dec 2025
5. Land Use Change and Infectious Disease Emergence

   M. Cristina Rulli, Paolo D’Odorico, Nikolas Galli, and 4 more authors

   Reviews of Geophysics, May 2025

2024

1. Mapping threatened Thai bovids provides opportunities for improved conservation outcomes in Asia

   Wantida Horpiencharoen, Renata L. Muylaert, Jonathan C. Marshall, and 22 more authors

   R. Soc. Open Sci., May 2024
2. HUMAN HEALTH THRIVES THANKS TO BIODIVERSITY

   Renata Muylaert, David TS Hayman, Miguel Fernandez, and 5 more authors

   Frontiers for Young Minds, Sep 2024
3. Hantavirus Expansion Trends in Natural Host Populations in Brazil

   José Henrique Fortes Mello, Renata L. Muylaert, and Carlos Eduardo Viveiros Grelle

   Viruses, Jul 2024
4. Impact of infectious diseases on wild bovidae populations in Thailand: insights from population modelling and disease dynamics

   Wantida Horpiencharoen, Jonathan C. Marshall, Renata L. Muylaert, and 2 more authors

   Journal of The Royal Society Interface, Jul 2024
5. Protected areas and One Health

   Skylar R. Hopkins, Sarah H. Olson, Hannah T. Fairbank, and 8 more authors

   PARKS, May 2024
6. Landscape Ecology Meets Disease Ecology in the Tropical America: Patterns, Trends, and Future Directions

   Matheus C. S. Mancini, Julia Rodrigues Barreto, Raquel L. Carvalho, and 3 more authors

   Current Landscape Ecology Reports, Apr 2024
7. The risk of vector transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi remains high in the State of Paraná

   João Vitor Trovo, Michele Martha Weber-Lima, Bianca Prado-Costa, and 6 more authors

   Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, May 2024
8. The Atlantic Forest of South America: Spatiotemporal dynamics of the vegetation and implications for conservation

   Maurício Humberto Vancine, Renata L. Muylaert, Bernardo Brandão Niebuhr, and 7 more authors

   Biological Conservation, May 2024

   Abs

9. High connectivity and human movement limits the impact of travel time on infectious disease transmission

   Reju Sam John, Joel C. Miller, Renata L. Muylaert, and 1 more author

   Journal of The Royal Society Interface, Jan 2024

2023

1. The coevolutionary mosaic of bat betacoronavirus emergence risk

   Norma R Forero-Muñoz, Renata L Muylaert, Stephanie N Seifert, and 4 more authors

   Virus Evolution, Dec 2023

   Abs

   Pathogen evolution is one of the least predictable components of disease emergence, particularly in nature. Here, building on principles established by the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution, we develop a quantitative, spatially explicit framework for mapping the evolutionary risk of viral emergence. Driven by interest in diseases like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we examine the global biogeography of bat-origin betacoronaviruses, and find that coevolutionary principles suggest geographies of risk that are distinct from the hotspots and coldspots of host richness. Further, our framework helps explain patterns like a unique pool of merbecoviruses in the Neotropics, a recently discovered lineage of divergent nobecoviruses in Madagascar, and—most importantly—hotspots of diversification in southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East that correspond to the site of previous zoonotic emergence events. Our framework may help identify hotspots of future risk that have also been previously overlooked, like West Africa and the Indian subcontinent, and may more broadly help researchers understand how host ecology shapes the evolution and diversity of pandemic threats.

2. Time lag effect on malaria transmission dynamics in an Amazonian Colombian municipality and importance for early warning systems

   William Gonzalez-Daza, Rafael Jose Vivero-Gómez, Mariano Altamiranda-Saavedra, and 2 more authors

   Scientific Reports, Oct 2023
3. Using drivers and transmission pathways to identify SARS-like coronavirus spillover risk hotspots

   Renata L. Muylaert, David A. Wilkinson, Tigga Kingston, and 6 more authors

   Nature Communications, Oct 2023
4. Malaria Risk Drivers in the Brazilian Amazon: Land Use Land Cover Interactions and Biological Diversity

   William Gonzalez Daza, Renata L. Muylaert, Thadeu Sobral-Souza, and 1 more author

   International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Oct 2023

   Abs

   Malaria is a prevalent disease in several tropical and subtropical regions, including Brazil, where it remains a significant public health concern. Even though there have been substantial efforts to decrease the number of cases, the reoccurrence of epidemics in regions that have been free of cases for many years presents a significant challenge. Due to the multifaceted factors that influence the spread of malaria, influencing malaria risk factors were analyzed through regional outbreak cluster analysis and spatio-temporal models in the Brazilian Amazon, incorporating climate, land use/cover interactions, species richness, and number of endemic birds and amphibians. Results showed that high amphibian and bird richness and endemism correlated with a reduction in malaria risk. The presence of forest had a risk-increasing effect, but it depended on its juxtaposition with anthropic land uses. Biodiversity and landscape composition, rather than forest formation presence alone, modulated malaria risk in the period. Areas with low endemic species diversity and high human activity, predominantly anthropogenic landscapes, posed high malaria risk. This study underscores the importance of considering the broader ecological context in malaria control efforts.

2022

1. Ten simple rules for reporting information on species interactions

   Cristina A Kita, Guillermo Florez-Montero, Sebastián Montoya-Bustamante, and 3 more authors

   PLOS Computational Biology, Oct 2022
2. Crops, caves, and bats: deforestation and mining threaten an endemic and endangered bat species (Lonchophylla: Phyllostomidae) in the Neotropical savannas

   Hernani Fernandes Magalhaes Oliveira, Guillermo Fandos, Priscilla Lora Zangrandi, and 8 more authors

   Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy, Oct 2022
3. Mammals in São Paulo State: diversity, distribution, ecology, and conservation

   Mauro Galetti, Ana Paula Carmignotto, Alexandre R Percequillo, and 8 more authors

   Biota Neotropica, Oct 2022
4. Present and future distribution of bat hosts of sarbecoviruses: implications for conservation and public health

   Renata L. Muylaert, Tigga Kingston, Jinhong Luo, and 6 more authors

   Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Apr 2022
5. DarkCideS 1.0, a global database for bats in karsts and caves

   Krizler C. Tanalgo, John Aries G. Tabora, Hernani Fernandes Magalhães Oliveira, and 33 more authors

   Scientific Data, Apr 2022
6. The Global Virome in One Network (VIRION): an atlas of vertebrate-virus associations

   Colin J Carlson, Rory J Gibb, Gregory F Albery, and 9 more authors

   mBio, Apr 2022
7. NeoBat Interactions: A data set of bat–plant interactions in the Neotropics

   Guillermo L. Florez‐Montero, Renata L Muylaert, Marcelo R Nogueira, and 6 more authors

   Ecology, Jan 2022

2021

1. Community health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

   Renata L Muylaert, Ben Davidson, Alex Ngabirano, and 6 more authors

   PLOS ONE, Nov 2021

   Abs

   Cross-species transmission of pathogens is intimately linked to human and environmental health.

2. The future of zoonotic risk prediction

   Colin J Carlson, Maxwell J Farrell, Zoe Grange, and 30 more authors

   Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Nov 2021

   Abs

   In the light of the urgency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, global investment in wildlife virology is likely to increase, and new surveillance programmes will identify hundreds of novel viruses that might someday pose a threat to humans.

3. The geography of diet variation in Neotropical Carnivora

   Lívia R Cruz, Renata L Muylaert, Mauro Galetti, and 1 more author

   Mammal Review, Jan 2021
4. Roads and forest edges facilitate yellow fever virus dispersion

   Paula Ribeiro Prist, Leandro Reverberi Tambosi, Luís Filipe Mucci, and 14 more authors

   Journal of Applied Ecology, Jan 2021

2020

1. Individual specialization in the use of space by frugivorous bats

   Patricia Kerches-Rogeri, Bernardo Brandão Niebuhr, Renata Lara Muylaert, and 1 more author

   Journal of Animal Ecology, Jan 2020
2. NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

   Mariana Nagy-Reis, Júlia Emi de Faria Oshima, Claudia Zukeran Kanda, and 8 more authors

   Ecology, Jan 2020
3. Seed dispersal by Neotropical bats in human-disturbed landscapes

   André Luis Regolin, Renata L Muylaert, Ana Cristina Crestani, and 2 more authors

   Wildlife Research, Jan 2020
4. Fragmented tropical forests lose mutualistic plant–animal interactions

   Emma-Liina Marjakangas, Nerea Abrego, Vidar Grøtan, and 8 more authors

   Diversity and Distributions, Jan 2020

2019

1. Insights into the assembly rules of a continent-wide multilayer network

   Marco A. R. Mello, Gabriel M. Felix, Rafael B. Pinheiro, and 7 more authors

   Nature Ecology & Evolution, Jan 2019
2. Spatiotemporal dynamics of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome transmission risk in Brazil

   Renata L Muylaert, Gilberto Sabino-Santos, Paula R Prist, and 8 more authors

   Viruses, Jan 2019
3. Hantavirus host assemblages and human disease in the Atlantic Forest

   Renata L Muylaert, Ricardo Siqueira Bovendorp, Gilberto Sabino-Santos Jr, and 6 more authors

   PLoS neglected tropical diseases, Jan 2019
4. Protecting the Cerrado: where should we direct efforts for the conservation of bat-plant interactions?

   HFM Oliveira, NF Camargo, Y Gager, and 3 more authors

   Biodiversity and Conservation, Jan 2019
5. Low modularity and specialization in a commensalistic epiphyte–phorophyte network in a tropical cloud forest

   Talitha M Francisco, Dayvid R Couto, Mário L Garbin, and 2 more authors

   Biotropica, Jan 2019
6. ATLANTIC BIRD TRAITS: a data set of bird morphological traits from the Atlantic forests of South America

   Rodolpho Credo Rodrigues, Érica Hasui, Julia Camara Assis, and 8 more authors

   Ecology, Jan 2019

2018

1. Uma nota sobre os limites territoriais da Mata Atlântica

   Renata Lara Muylaert, Maurı́cio Humberto Vancine, Rodrigo Bernardo, and 5 more authors

   Oecologia Australis, Jan 2018
2. Spatial prediction of risk areas for vector transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi in the State of Paraná, southern Brazil

   Andréia Mantovani Ferro Silva, Thadeu Sobral-Souza, Maurı́cio Humberto Vancine, and 7 more authors

   PLoS neglected tropical diseases, Jan 2018
3. Natural infection of Neotropical bats with hantavirus in Brazil

   Gilberto Sabino-Santos Jr, Felipe Gonçalves Motta Maia, Ronaldo Bragança Martins, and 8 more authors

   Scientific reports, Jan 2018
4. Landscape resistance influences effective dispersal of endangered golden lion tamarins within the Atlantic Forest

   Andreia Magro Moraes, Carlos R Ruiz-Miranda, Pedro M Galetti Jr, and 7 more authors

   Biological Conservation, Jan 2018
5. ATLANTIC MAMMAL TRAITS: a data set of morphological traits of mammals in the Atlantic Forest of South America

   Fernando Gonçalves, Ricardo S Bovendorp, Gabrielle Beca, and 8 more authors

   Ecology, Jan 2018
6. ATLANTIC BIRDS: a data set of bird species from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

   Érica Hasui, Jean Paul Metzger, Rafael G Pimentel, and 8 more authors

   Ecology, Jan 2018

2017

1. ATLANTIC BATS: a data set of bat communities from the Atlantic Forests of South America

   Renata L Muylaert, Richard D Stevens, Carlos EL Esbérard, and 8 more authors

   Ecology, Jan 2017
2. ATLANTIC-CAMTRAPS: a dataset of medium and large terrestrial mammal communities in the Atlantic Forest of South America

   Fernando Lima, Gabrielle Beca, Renata L Muylaert, and 8 more authors

   Ecology, Jan 2017
3. Integrating plant richness in forest patches can rescue overall biodiversity in human-modified landscapes

   Fabiano Turini Farah, Renata Lara Muylaert, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, and 4 more authors

   Forest ecology and management, Jan 2017
4. Using different proxies to predict hantavirus disease risk in Sao Paulo state, Brazil

   Paula Ribeiro Prist, Renata Lara Muylaert, Amanda Prado, and 4 more authors

   Oecologia Aust, Jan 2017

2016

1. Few ant species play a central role linking different plant resources in a network in rupestrian grasslands

   Fernanda V Costa, Marco AR Mello, Judith L Bronstein, and 4 more authors

   PloS one, Jan 2016
2. Effects of land cover on the movement of frugivorous birds in a heterogeneous landscape

   Natalia Stefanini Da Silveira, Bernardo Brandao S Niebuhr, Renata de Lara Muylaert, and 2 more authors

   PloS one, Jan 2016
3. Threshold effect of habitat loss on bat richness in cerrado-forest landscapes

   Renata L Muylaert, Richard D Stevens, and Milton C Ribeiro

   Ecological Applications, Jan 2016

2015

1. Evidence of hantavirus infection among bats in Brazil

   Gilberto Sabino-Santos Jr, Felipe Gonçalves Motta Maia, Thallyta Maria Vieira, and 8 more authors

   The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, Jan 2015

2014

1. Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in a cerrado landscape in Sao Carlos, southeastern Brazil

   Renata Lara Muylaert, Reinaldo Chaves Teixeira, Luana Hortenci, and 3 more authors

   Check List, Jan 2014
2. Interindividual variations in fruit preferences of the yellow-shouldered bat Sturnira lilium (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in a cafeteria experiment

   Renata Lara Muylaert, Dalva Maria Silva Matos, and Marco Aurelio Ribeiro Mello

   Mammalia, Jan 2014