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Ivette Perfecto

James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor of Environmental Justice
Ecosystem Science and Management
Climate + Energy
Food Systems
perfecto@umich.edu
(734)-764-8601
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Office
3541 Dana
Websites
Perfecto Lab

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About

I am the James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor of Environmental Justice. My research focuses on biodiversity and arthropod-mediated ecosystem services in rural and urban agriculture. I also work on spatial ecology of the coffee agroecosystem and am interested more broadly on the links between small-scale sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and food sovereignty. I am co-author of four books, Breakfast of Biodiversity,  Nature’s Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty, and Coffee Agroecology, and Ecological Complexity and Agroecology.

Teaching Interests:

I teach “Globalization and its Discontent: Struggles for Food, Water and Energy” (Environ 270), Diverse Farming Systems (NRE 553), and Transformative Food Systems Seminar (NRE 556). In my courses, I like to challenge students to think for themselves. Most of my classes have a strong Latin American flavor because I am from Latin America (Puerto Rico), and I conduct research in Latin America (Mexico, Mesoamerica, and Puerto Rico). Most of my courses are interdisciplinary and are taught from a social justice perspective.

Publications

2021–2022

  • Morris, J and I. Perfecto. In press. A dominant non-consumptive effect mediates pest control and multi-predator interactions in a coffee agroecosystem. Ecological Applications.
  • Li, K. Hajian-Forooshani, C. Su, I. Perfecto and J. Vandermeer. 2022. Climate change and resistant varieties mediate critical transition in coffee rust disease. Scientific Reports 12: 1564.
  • Benitez, M., J. A. Rosell, I. Perfecto. 2022. Mathematical modelling and complex systems in agroecology (Editorial). Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 560.
  • Iverson, A., R. Burham, I. Perfecto, N. Vandenberg and J. Vandermeer. 2022. A tropical lady beetle, Diomus lupusapudoves (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), deceives potential enemies to predate an ant-protected coffee pest through putative chemical mimicry. International Journal of Tropical Insect Science 42(1): 947-953.
  • McCune, N., Y. Luna, J. Vandermeer e I. Perfecto. 2021. Cuestiones agrarias y transformaciones agroecológicas. In: M. Benítez, T. Rivera-Núñez and L. García-Barrios (eds.), Agroecología y Sistemas Complejos: Planteamientos Epistémicos, Casos de Estudio y Enfoques Metodológicos, SOCLA, Mexico, pp 27-50.
  • Jedlicka, J. A., S.M. Philpott, M.L. Baena Hurtado, P. Bichier, T.V. Dietsch, L. Hayward, S. Langdridge, I. Perfecto, R. Greenberg. 2021. Differences in insectivore bird diets in coffee agroecosystems driven by obligate or generalist guild, shade management, season, and year. PeerJ 9:e12296
  • Newson, J., J. Vandermeer and I. Perfecto. 2021. Differential effects of ants as biological control of the coffee berry borer in Puerto Rico. Biological Control 160: 104666.
  • González González, C, E. Mora Van Cauwelaert, D. Boyer, I. Perfecto, J. Vandermeer, M. Benítez. 2021. High-order interactions maintain or enhance structural robustness of a coffee agroecosystem network. Ecological Complexity 47: 100951.
  • Soley, F. and I. Perfecto. 2021. A way forward for biodiversity conservation: high-quality landscapes. Submitted to Trends in Ecology and Evolution 36(9): 770-773.
  • Irizarry, A., J. A. Collazo, J. Vandermeer, and I. Perfecto. 2021. Coffee plantations, hurricanes and avian resiliency: insights from local occupancy, colonization and extinction rates in Puerto Rico. Global Ecology and Conservation, 27: e01579.
  • Schmitt, L., R. Greenberg, G. Ibarra Núñez, P. Bichier, C. Gordon, I. Perfecto. 2021. Cascading effects of birds and bats in a shaded coffee agroforestry system. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 27 April, 2021.
  • Iuliano, B., A. Cartmill, S. Davis, A.  Kerr, I.  Perfecto. 2021 Human Dimensions: Agroecology for just and sustainable food systems. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 102 (3): e01871.
  • Davies et al.,…  I. Perfecto, ...  (157 authors). 2021. Forest GEO: Understanding forest diversity and dynamics through a global observatory network. Biological Conservation 253, 108907.
  • Vandermeer, J., Z. Hajian-Forooshani, N. Medina and I. Perfecto. 2021.  New forms of structure in ecosystems revealed with the Kuramoto model. Royal Society Open Science. 8: 210122
  • Schmitt, L. and I. Perfecto. 2021. Coffee leaf litter decomposition: short term home-field advantage in shaded coffee agroecosystems. Applied Soil Ecology 161 May 2021, 103854

View more publications here.

Education

Ph.D. University of Michigan (ecology, natural resources)

M.S. University of Michigan (biology)

B.S. Universidad Sagrado Corazón, Puerto Rico (biology)

Affiliations

Sustainable Food Systems Initiative, University of Michigan

Program in the Environment, University of Michigan

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