Ugo Mendes Diniz

Research interest

• Community Ecology
• Pollination Ecology
• Floral Biology
• Mutualistic Networks
• Tropical Ecology

My main interest is the assembly processes of interaction networks, with a focus on plant-pollinator interactions. Recent research topics have been the effect of passive tropical regeneration on plant-pollinator network reassembly, spatiotemporal trends of interaction assembly, ecological drivers of network structure, pollen flow in urban environments, and peculiarities of bat-pollination, my favorite research system. Most of my studies have been conducted in tropical ecosystems, such as the savannas (Cerrado) and dry forests (Caatinga) of Brazil, and the Chocó biodiversity hotspot in Ecuador. More recently, over my PhD in the Reassembly Research Unit (https://www.reassembly.de) funded by the DFG, I have also worked with a range of diurnal and nocturnal insect-pollination systems. 

Publications

• Diniz, U. M., Böttger, D., Lalama, S. F. V., Frühholz, K., Pitz, K., Windl, J., Rasmussen, C., Keller, A., Leonhardt, S. D., Brehm, G. Canopies drive the reassembly of pollinator communities and interaction networks along tropical forest succession. Biodiversity and Conservation, in press.

• Albuquerque-Lima, S., Diniz, U. M., Bezerra-Silva, A., Carneiro, J. R., Machado, I. C. (2026). There is always room for one more: mass visitation by nectarivorous bats recorded at urban Sumaúma trees (Ceiba pentandra). Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 99(2). doi.org/10.1186/s40693-026-00142-w

• Amaral-Garcia, L., Ordóñez-Parra, C. A.,  Agostini, K., Barbosa-Dias, L. G.,  Fidelis, A.,  Maruyama, P. K., Medeiros, N. F.,  Senna, N., Rossatto, D. R., Melo, P. H. A., … Diniz, U.M., … Teles, A.M. (2026). Cerrado Plant Traits (CPT): a database of functional traits across vegetation types in a global biodiversity hotspot. Annals of Botany: mcag176. doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag176

• Metz, T., Farwig, N., Dormann, C. F., Schaefer, M., Guevara-Andino, J. E., Brehm, G., Burneo, S., Chao, A., Chazdon, R., Colwell, R. K., Diniz, U. M., Donoso, D., Endara, M., Erazo, S., Escobar, S., Falconí-López, A., Feldhaar, H., Villamarin, M. G., Grella, N., Heer, K., Heethoff, M., Keller, A., Landim, A. R., Leonhardt, S. D., Lopez, E. T., (…) Blüthgen, N. (2026). Biodiversity resilience in a tropical rainforest. Nature. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10365-2

• Böttger, D., Diniz, U.M., Keller, A., Leonhardt, S.D., Brehm, G. (2025). Moth Communities Are More Diverse in the Understory Than in the Canopy of a Tropical Lowland Rainforest in NW Ecuador. Ecology and Evolution 16(4): e73337. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.73337

• Escobar, S., Endara, M., Blüthgen, N., Brehm, G., Burneo, S. F., Diniz, U. M., Donoso, D. A., Erazo, S., Feldhaar, E., Grella, N., Keller, A., Landim, A. R., Leonhardt, S. D., Marín-Armijos, D., Müller, J., Neira-Salameia, K., Neuschulz, E. L., Newell, F. L., Pedersen, K. M., Rödel, M. O., Schleuning, M., Tschapka, M., Guevara-Andino, J. E.. Disparate recovery of phylogenetic diversity across taxa during tropical rainforest regeneration. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 293(2066). doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.2231

• Diniz, U.M., Keller, A., Brehm, G., Viteri Lalama, S.F., Frühholz, K., Pitz, M., Windl, J., Erazo, S., Burneo, S.F., Tschapka, M., Leonhardt, S.D. (2025). The neglected pollinators: settling moths are keystone floral visitors essential to network connectivity and tropical forest recovery. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 292(2061). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1981 

• Brehm, G., Böttger, D., Diniz, U.M., Donoso, D.A., Kortmann, M., Müller, J., Rabl, D., Keller, A., Laguerre, M. (2025). Illustrated catalogue and preliminary phylogeny of 330 species of Arctiinae moth species from the Chocó rainforest in NW Ecuador: most species are undescribed. Neotropical Entomology 54: 127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-025-01333-y. 

• Diniz, U.M., Primo, L.M., Santos, F.A.R., Machado, I.C.M. (2025). Structural stability of plant–pollinator interactions despite seasonal abundance of long-tongued hawkmoths. Oikos 2026 (1): e11283. https://doi.org/10.1002/oik.11283 

• Diniz, U.M., Guevara-Andino, J.E., Brehm, G., Rasmussen, C., Leonhardt, S. D., Keller, A. (2025). Low resilience to deforestation in nocturnal bees is counteracted by a broad resource range and reliance on pioneers. Apidologie 56: 106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-025-01231-7 

• Frühholz, K., Kuba, K., Pitz, M., Windl, J., Keller, A., Brehm, G., Rasmussen, C., Leonhardt, S.D., Diniz, U.M. (2025). Improving allometric models to estimate the proboscis length of tropical bees. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 146(2): blaf093. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blaf093

• Sakhalkar, S. P., Blüthgen, N., Burkle, L., CaraDonna, P., Dalsgaard, P., Dormann, C., Kaiser-Bunbury, C. N. … Diniz. U. M. ... Tropek, R. (2025). Climate-driven specialisation in plant–pollinator networks peaks outside the tropics. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.08.680666 

• Villa-Galaviz, E., Brehm, G., Burneo, S., Diniz, U. M., Donoso, D. A., Endara, M.-J., Erazo, S., Escobar, S., Falconí-López, A., Farwig, N., Feldhaar, H., Garcia Villamarin, M., Guevara-Andino, J. E., Grella, N., Heer, K., Heethoff, M., Keller, A., Landim, A. R., Leonhardt, S. D., Marín-Armijos, D., Metz, T., Müller, J., Neira-Salamea, K., Neuschulz, E. L., Pedersen, K. M., Rödel, M.-O., Schaefer, M., Schleuning, M., Schmitt, T., Tamargo, E., Tartara, A., Tinoco, B. A., Tremlett, C. J., Tschapka, M., Unsicker, S. B., Blüthgen, N. (2025). Variation in successional niche turnover of multiple taxa in a recovering tropical rainforest EcoEvoRXiv: https://doi.org/10.32942/X2934Z 

• Aguiar, L. M. S., Diniz, U. M., Bueno-Rocha, I. D., Filomeno, L. R. A., Aguiar-Machado, L. S., Gomes, P. A., Togni, P. B. (2024). Untangling biodiversity interactions: A meta-network on pollination in Earth's most diverse tropical savanna. Ecology and Evolution 14(3), e11094. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11094 

• Diniz, U. M., & Aguiar, L. M. S. (2023). The interplay between spatiotemporal overlap and morphology as determinants of microstructure suggests no ‘perfect fit’ in a bat-flower network. Scientific Reports 13, 2737. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29965-3 

• Diniz, U. M., & Aguiar, L. M. S. (2023). Spatiotemporal trends in floral visitation and interaction networks reveal shifting niches for bats in a Neotropical savanna. Journal of Animal Ecology 00, 1-14. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13941.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13941 

• Domingos-Melo, A., Albuquerque-Lima, S., Diniz, U. M., Machado, I. C., Lopes, A. V. (2023). Bat pollination in the Caatinga: review of studies and peculiarities of the system. Flora 305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flora.2023.152332 

• Diniz, U. M., Fischer, N. L. S., & Aguiar, L. M. S. (2022). Changing the main course: strong bat visitation to the ornithophilous mistletoe Psittacanthus robustus (Loranthaceae) in a Neotropical savanna. Biotropica, 54(2), 478-489. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.13070 

• Diniz, U. M., Nadia T. L., Mello, M. A. R. M., Machado, I. C. (2022). Few plants and one dominant fly shape a unique pollination network in a Neotropical mangrove. Aquatic Botany, 180(2), 103526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2022.103526 

• Albuquerque-Lima, S., Diniz, U. M., & Machado, I. C. (2022). A nectar oasis for urban Glossophaginae bats: Temporal resource dynamics of the chiropterophilous Crescentia cujete (Bignoniaceae). Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 67, 127412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127412 

• Ramalho, D. F., Diniz, U. M., & Aguiar, L. (2021). Anthropization Affects the Assembly of Bat-Bat Fly Interaction Networks. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 454. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.752412 

• Queiroz, J. A., Diniz, U. M., Vázquez, D. P., Quirino, Z. M., Santos, F. A., Mello, M. A., & Machado, I. C. (2021). Bats and hawkmoths form mixed modules with flowering plants in a nocturnal interaction network. Biotropica, 53(2), 596-607. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12902 

• Domingos-Melo, A., Diniz, U. M., Chalegre, S. L., & Machado, I. C. (2021). “Sweet Rain” from Bat-Pollinated Flowers: How Does Sugar Concentration Modulate Nectar Retention?. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 182(1), 71-77. https://doi.org/10.1086/711080 

• Diniz, U. M., Domingos-Melo, A., & Machado, I. C. (2019). Flowers up! The effect of floral height along the shoot axis on the fitness of bat-pollinated species. Annals of Botany, 124(5), 809-818. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcz116 

• Diniz, U. M., Lima, S. A., & Machado, I. C. (2019). Short-distance pollen dispersal by bats in an urban setting: monitoring the movement of a vertebrate pollinator through fluorescent dyes. Urban Ecosystems, 22(2), 281-291. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-0825-7