Marcelo is a behavioural ecologist and scientific programmer whose work bridges evolutionary biology, bioacoustics, and computational analysis. His research investigates the evolution of animal behaviour, particularly acoustic communication in neotropical species, across both cultural and evolutionary timescales. He combines single-species behavioural observations, comparative phylogenetic methods, and high-throughput data analysis to explore how animal communication systems evolve and adapt.
Marcelo is also a developer of several widely used R packages for bioacoustics research, including warbleR, Rraven, and baRulho, which support the manipulation, measurement, and quality assessment of annotated sound data. His work promotes reproducible, flexible, and scalable approaches to analyzing acoustic signals in animal behavior studies.
Education & Career
• Researcher, Neuroscience Research Center, Universidad de Costa Rica
• Developer of open-source R tools for bioacoustic data analysis
• Active contributor to interdisciplinary collaborations in behavioral ecology and bioacoustics
Research Focus
Marcelo’s research centers on understanding the mechanisms and evolutionary drivers of animal communication. He is particularly interested in how vocal signals change over time and space, and how these changes relate to species’ ecology, behavior, and phylogenetic history.
Current Projects
• Comparative analysis of acoustic signal structure across neotropical bird species
• Development of analytical workflows for large-scale acoustic datasets
• Investigating cultural evolution in animal vocalizations through long-term field recordings
Software & Tools
• warbleR – Streamlining bioacoustic analysis in R
• Rraven – Integrating R with Raven Pro for acoustic annotation
• baRulho – Assessing signal degradation and structure in environmental recordings
Teaching & Skills
• Instructor in scientific programming, acoustic analysis, and data visualization in R
• Promotes reproducibility and open-source software in behavioral ecology
• Experienced in both ecological fieldwork and computational research
Links
• ResearchGate
• Google Scholar
• Work Homepage
• Personal Homepage