I joined NRI in June 2025, having taught for short periods in several other British universities.

Before that I taught and conducted ecological research in Brazil, first in the Brazilian Amazon (National Amazon Research Institute, Manaus) and then in coastal state of Pernambuco (Pernambuco Federal University, Recife).

I am a tropical ecologist with an interest in using animal/plant interactions to identify key vulnerabilities in the ecologies and species and habitats and use that knowledge for effective conservation.

Before working in Brazil, I ran my own ecological consultancy (being based first in the UK and then in California). With this I conducted Environmental Impact Analyses, advised on films and TV series and help design museum exhibits. I also worked as a freelance journalist on radio and for popular science magazines, as an oral historian for the California Academy of Science and was the Senior Research Officer for Friends of the Earth England’s rainforest campaign.

I’ve supervised 25 master's and 9 doctoral students and published 125 academic articles, 39 book chapters and seven academic books.

I am a member of the Behavioural Ecology and Ecosystems Services research clusters.

My focus is animal/plant interactions and how knowledge of these can be used to inform effective conservation strategies. I mostly work with parrots and primates, but am also interested in bats, aquatic mammals, carnivores, a variety of bird taxa, fish and amphibians, as well as such insect groups as bees, butterflies and beetles. I work a lot on diets, pollination, and seed dispersal and how such multi-species dependencies both sustain species and systems and make them vulnerable to change. This includes climate change, deforestation, urbanization and invasive species.

I’m also interested in systems where co-evolved mutualisms are overturned, such as seed-predation and nectar theft.

I work in the Brazilian amazon in rainforest and seasonally flooded forest, and in savannah and marshland habitats. I also work in cloud forest and high-altitude grasslands in the Andes. I’ve worked in Africa and Asia too and retain a strong interest in their fauna and floras. I’m keenly interested in tropical urban ecology.

Most recently I have worked on:

1. Monkey diets: Looking at how mechanical stress, protein debt and avoiding predators and inter-group competition influence the foraging behaviour and diet choices in Amazonian primates
2. Parrot diets: Tracking how the diets and niches of an 11-species parrot community changed across 10 years as the study area became ever more impacted by humans
3. Carnivore conservation: A study of carnivores in the mountainous hinterland of Pakistan, their distributions and threats and how conservation planning is being complicated by the loss of wild prey species, so that the wolves, snow leopards and bears turn to domestic livestock to sustain themselves
4. Mice/lice/beetle: Analysing of the consequences of testosterone as an immune-suppressant in an unusual model system – the fur of an Andean cloud forest mouse. Correcting for surface area, the study compared the density of fleas, lice and commensal flea-louse eating beetles in fur of mice male and female mice before and after puberty
5. Microbiomes and plant chemicals: Studying the sensitivity of primate gut bacteria to the phytochemicals in plants they do and do not eat (testing the idea that primates may choose foods based on what is good for their intestinal flora and not simply their bodies)

My current research projects include:

1. Brazil nut ecology: Studies of pollination and seed predation in organically-grown community-managed Brazil-nut trees in the southern Amazon;
2. Knock-on effects of Amazon droughts: Analysing the impacts of drought on trees in igapó (a seasonally-flooded riverside forest type) and the knock-on effects on wildlife (including fish - a key regional food-source);
3. Redhead reasons: Research the drivers behind the bright red head of the bald uacari monkey (Cacajao calvus)
4. Hard lessons: Investigating how diet changes as golden-backed uacari monkeys (Cacajao ouakari) grow up – especially important as adults eat seeds from really hard fruits. Bite forces estimated via computer modelling from scanned skulls, complimenting field observations of eaten fruits and their penetrability. Plans for future research includes:
5. Rewilding with (retired) elephants: The impact of elephants on the cerrado of central Brazil (a woody savanna ecosystem, not unlike the plains of east Africa). Analyse the impact of these large herbivorous mammals on this system, whether it could be used to restore the cerrado to a state similar to that in the Pleistocene when large mammals were abundant there, and if that is desirable (the elephants are retired zoo and circus elephants and range free in a cerrado sanctuary)
6. Fishing mice conservation ecology: Conducting studies of fishing mice in Andean grassland and cloud-forest streams and the likely impacts of climate change on them, their habitats and food sources Am accepting post-graduate students

I am currently accepting post-graduate students.

I currently teach on the following modules:

• Animal Ecology (3rd year)
• Animal Science and Environmental Physiology (1st year)
• Readings in Geography and Environmental Science (3rd year)

I will shortly start on outreach programmes taking ecological knowledge to local schools.

Fellow:

• Linnean Society of London

Member:

• American Society of Primatologists
• Brazilian Society of Primatologists
• British Ecological Society International Society of Primatology
• IUCN Primate Specialist Group (Neotropics)
• Primate Society of Great Britain

Associate editor:

• Acta Amazonica

Barnett AA, Penhorwood G, Little E, Bonham R, Carter M, Andrade RS, Cavalcanti G, Dias da Silva RHP, Menezes M, Muir J, de Oliveira T, Santos-Barnett TC, Todd LM, Ledogar J, Boyle SA & Klinkenberg B (2025). The lite bite: red-nosed cuxiu (Chiropotes albinasus, Primates) exploit differential penetrability of hard fruit husks when selecting dental puncture sites. Biotropica 57(6): e70113. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/btp.70113

Cavalcante TC, Barnett AA, Von Donink J & Tuomisto H (2024). Modelling 21st century refugia and impact of climate change on Amazonia's largest primates. Ecography 2024: e06988. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06988

Sobroza TV, Gordo M, Dunn JC, Pequeno PACL, Naissinger BM & Barnett AA (2024). Pied tamarins change their vocal behavior in response to noise levels in the largest city in the Amazon. American Journal of Primatology 86: e23606. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23606

Barnett AA, dos Santos-Barnett TC, Muir J, Tománek P, Gregory T, Matte ALL, Bezerra BM, de Oliveira TG, Norconk M & Boyle SA (2023). Beans with bugs: covert insectivory and infested seed selection by the red-nosed cuxiu monkey, Chiropotes albinasus. Biotropica 55: 579–593. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.13207

Barnett AA, Stone AI, Shaw P, Ronchi-Teles B, dos Santos-Barnett TC, Penhorwood G, Urmeed R, Bezerra BM, Bitencourt A, Spironello WR, Ross C, Boyle S & Wenzel JW (2023). When food fights back: Cebid primate strategies of larval paper wasp predation and the high-energy yield of high-risk foraging. Austral Ecology 48: 719–742. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.13287

Soares CS, Barnett AA, Scudeller VV & Borges SH (2023). Searching for food in a concrete jungle: feeding ecology of a Psittacine assemblage (Aves, Psittacidae) in a major Amazonian city. Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences 95(Suppl. 2): e20220606. https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765202320220606

Souza-Alves JP, Boyle SA & Barnett AA (2023). What we know we do not know: Identifying shortfalls and future research priorities for titi monkeys (Callicebus, Cheracebus, Plecturocebus). Biological Conservation 286: 110256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110256

Cavalcante T, Weber MM & Barnett AA (2022). Combining geospatial abundance and ecological niche models to identify high-priority areas for conservation: the neglected role of broadscale interspecific competition. Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution 10: 915325. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.915325

Correa SB, van der Sleen P, Siddiqui SF, Bogotá-Gregory JD, Arantes CC, Barnett AA, Couto T, Goulding M & Anderson E (2022). Biotic indicators of ecological state change in Amazonian floodplains. BioScience 72: 753–768. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biac038

dos Santos-Barnett TC, Cavalcante TC, Boyle SA, Matte AL, Bezerra BM, de Oliveira TG & Barnett AA (2022). Pulp fiction: why some populations of ripe-fruit specialists, Ateles chamek and A. marginatus, prefer insect-infested foods. International Journal of Primatology 43: 384–408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-022-00284-0

Gusmão AC, Evangelista-Vale JC, Pires-Oliveira J, Barnett AA & da Silva OD (2021). New records: modelling the impacts of climate change on the black-tailed marmosets. PLoS ONE 16(9): e0256270. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256270

Souza-Alves JP, Chagas R, Hílario R, Barnett AA & Bezerra BM (2021). Gums the word: Species-specific resource availability as potential correlates of foraging strategy in Atlantic Forest edge-living common marmosets. Ecology, Ethology & Evolution 34: 449–470. https://doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2021.1949751

Amato KR, Abreu F, Baden A, Barnett AA & 31 others (2021). Fermented food consumption in wild non-human primates and its ecological drivers. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 175: 113–130.

Ferreira Neto GS, Baccaro FB, Spironello WR, Gonçalves ALS, Quesada CA & Barnett AA (2021). Soil fertility and anthropogenic disturbances drive mammal species richness and assemblage composition on tropical fluvial islands. Austral Ecology 46: 792–801. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.13023

Barnett AA, Boyle SA, dos Santos-Barnett TC, Tuma T, Piedade MTF, Parolin P & Bezerra BM (2020). Buds, bugs and bienniality: the floral biology of Eschweilera tenuifolia (O. Berg) Miers (Lecythidaceae) in blackwater flooded forest (igapó), central Amazonian Brazil. Forests 11(12): 1251. https://doi.org/10.3390/f11121251

Souza-Alves JP, Baccaro FB, Fontes IP, Oliveira MA, Silva NMO & Barnett AA (2020). For emergency use only: terrestrial feeding in Coimbra-Filho's titis reflects seasonal resource availability and not habituation to human observers. Primates 62: 199–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-020-00859-6

Dias da Silva RHP, Castro-Sá M, Baccaro F, Tomanek P & Barnett AA (2020). Juggling options: optimal selection of size-weight combinations of Aldina latifolia (Fabaceae) pods by Cacajao ouakary (Pitheciidae). Biotropica 52: 1275–1285. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12835

Jucá T, Boyle S, Cavalcanti G, Cavalcante T, Tomanek P, Clemente S, de Oliveira T & Barnett AA (2020). Being hunted high and low: do differences in nocturnal sleeping and diurnal resting sites of howler monkeys (Alouatta nigerrima and A. discolor) reflect safety from attack by different types of predator? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 131: 203–219. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blaa102

Cavalcante T, de Souza Jesus A, Rabelo RM, Messias RM, Valsecchi J, Ferraz D, Gusmão AC, da Silva OD, Faria L & Barnett AA (2020). Niche overlap between two sympatric frugivorous Neotropical primates: improving ecological niche models using closely-related taxa. Biodiversity & Conservation 29: 2749–2763. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-01997-5

Antunes AC, Baccaro F, Andrade V, Ramos J & Barnett AA (2019). Igapó seed patches: a potentially key resource for terrestrial vertebrates in a seasonally flooded forest of the central Amazonia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 128: 460–472. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blz101

Gusmão AC, Messias MR, Carneiro JC, Schneider H, Alencar TB, Calouro AM, Dalponte JC, Mattos FS, Ferrari SF, Buss G, Azevedo RB, Santos Júnior EM, Nash SD, Rylands AB & Barnett AA (2019). A new species of titi monkey, Plecturocebus Byrne et al. 2016 (Primates, Pitheciidae), from southwestern Amazonia, Brazil. Primate Conservation 33: 21–33. http://www.primate-sg.org/storage/pdf/PC33_Gusmao_et_al_Plecturocebus_sp_nov.pdf

Negreiros AA, Pohlit A, Baccaro F & Barnett AA (2019). The bitter end: primate avoidance of caterpillar-infested trees in a central Amazon flooded forest. Canadian Journal of Zoology 97: 181–186. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2018-0056

Barnett AA, de Oliveira T, Soares da Silva FM, de Albuquerque Teixeira S, Tomanek P & Boyle SA (2018). Honest error, precaution or alertness advertisement? Reactions to vertebrate pseudopredators in red-nosed cuxiús (Chiropotes albinasus), a high-canopy neotropical primate. Ethology 124: 177–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.12721

Pimenta N, Gonçalves A & Barnett AA (2018). The return of giant otter to the Baniwa Landscape: a multi-scale approach to the study of habitat use during the recolonization process. Biological Conservation 224: 318–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.06.015

Pimenta N, Antunes A, Macedo V, Barnett AA & Shepard G (2018). Differential resilience of Amazonian otters along the Rio Negro in the aftermath of the 20th century international fur trade. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0193984. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193984

Pimenta N, Barnett AA, Botero-Arias R & Marmontel M (2018). When predators become prey: caiman and dolphin hunting for the piracatinga (Calophysus macropterus) fishery in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, Amazonas, Brazil. Biological Conservation 222: 154–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.04.003

Barnett AA, Silla JM, de Oliveira T, Boyle SA, Bezerra BM, Spironello WR, Setz EZF, Soares R, de Albuquerque Teixeira S & Pinto LP (2017). Run, hide or fight: anti-predation strategies in Endangered red-nosed cuxiú (Chiropotes albinasus, Pitheciidae) in south-eastern Amazonia. Primates 58: 353–360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-017-0596-9

Barnett AA, Bezerra BM, Spironello WR, Shaw P, Ross C & MacLarnon A (2016). Foraging with finesse: a hard-fruit eating primate selects weakest areas as bite sites. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 160: 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22935

Barnett AA, Almeida T, Andrade R, Boyle S, Gonçalves-Lima M, Sousa Silva W, Spironello WR & Ronchi-Teles B (2015). Ants in their plants: Pseudomyrmex ants reduce primate, parrot and squirrel predation on Macrolobium acaciifolium (Fabaceae) seeds in Brazilian Amazonia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 114: 260–273. https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12425

Barnett AA, Silva WS, Shaw PJA & Ramsay RM (2015). Inundation duration and vertical vegetation stratification: a preliminary description of the vegetation and structuring factors in Borokotóh (hummock igapó), an overlooked, high-diversity, Amazonian habitat. Nordic Journal of Botany 33: 601–614.

Barnett AA & Shaw P (2014). More food or fewer predators? The benefits to birds of associating with a Neotropical primate varies with their foraging strategy. Journal of Zoology 294: 224–233. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12182

Mourthe I & Barnett AA (2014). Crying Tapir: The functionality of errors and accuracy in predator recognition in two neotropical high-canopy primates. Folia Primatologica 85: 379–398. https://doi.org/10.1159/000371634

Jenkins PD & Barnett AA (1997). A new species of water mouse, of the genus Chibchanomys (Rodentia: Muridae: Sigmodontinae) from southern Ecuador. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum (Zoology) 63: 123–128.

Barnett AA (1997). The natural history and conservation of a fishing mouse Chibchanomys spec. nov. (Ichthyomyini: Muridae) from the Andes of southern Ecuador. Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde 62: 43–52.