Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Dr. Flávia Costa Areglado is a biologist and received her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Her research includes ballast water biology, sampling, non-native species and risk assessment.

Flávia have boarded over a 100 commercial ships with different management systems in ports such as Santos/Brazil, the busiest in Latin America, Galveston, Houston, Baltimore, Duluth, Wisconsin and Cove Point, in the United States, to study the distribution of non native invertebrates in ballast water and sediment and what their invasion opportunities look like given species biology and environmental drivers.

Currently, Flávia is interested on emergent patterns of bacteria in ship's ballast water and associated zooplankton and their management.