Skip Navigation

Mariana Murakami

Graduate Teaching Assistant and PhD Student

Profile

Biography

Mariana joined Edge Hill University in 2019 as a PhD student and graduate teaching assistant. She gained her undergraduate degree in Biology from Universidade Estácio de Sá (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in 2008. After graduation, she worked as a teacher in Rio de Janeiro for private and public schools. She was a botanical consultant at Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, a federal facility, where she developed activities and tools for botanical identification classes. Mariana then successfully completed her MSc in Sustainable Development Practices at the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Her MSc research focused on vascular epiphyte ecology in different conservation areas in Brazil.

Mariana’s PhD work at Edge Hill focuses on the quantification of microclimatic conditions in forest canopies in Brazil, using a sensory network. She will be relating her microclimate data to tropical epiphyte assemblages across different host trees.

Research Interests

  • Quantifying the microhabitat of epiphytes at high spatial and temporal resolution.
  • Assessing epiphytes water relations under different light environments.
  • Developing a mechanistic understanding of the epiphytes distribution.