About Us
From the forest canopy to the riverbed, TAOCA safeguards the data that reveals how Amazonian biodiversity truly works. TAOCA's partners are dedicated to understanding the drivers and distribution of biodiversity across Amazonian forests and freshwater ecosystems.
We bring together ecological data on a range of focal taxa – including birds, dung beetles, ants, terrestrial mammals, freshwater macroinvertebrates, macrophytes and fish – collected through standardized ecological surveys across sampled sites in the Brazilian Amazon.
Every dataset hosted by TAOCA helps answer some of the most pressing questions in conservation science today. Data hosted by TAOCA can be used to understand large-scale spatiotemporal patterns in Amazonian biodiversity, investigate its underlying drivers, support conservation assessments of key taxa, and provide scientific evidence to inform decision-making – turning field data into real-world impact.
TAOCA is currently based at the University of Bristol (UK) and the Federal University of Pará (UFPA, Brazil).
Our Trajectory
Built through years of collaboration across institutions and disciplines, our trajectory supports and connects multiple research networks and projects, and is structured into the following phases:
PHASE 1: CREATION (2020–2022)
TAOCA was born out of the need to organize, standardize and securely store the vast amount of ecological data gathered by Project SYNERGIZE (SYNthesising Ecological Responses to deGradation In amaZonian Environments). SYNERGIZE was part of the Brazilian Synthesis Centre on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (SinBiose) and led the compilation of biodiversity data from Amazonian forest and freshwater ecosystems, contributed by a network of more than 250 scientists.
This milestone made TAOCA the first database to host standardized ecological data on bird, scarab beetle and ant assemblages in the Brazilian Amazon.
Its development was co-led by teams from Project SYNERGIZE (Dr Filipe França, Dr Raquel Carvalho, Dr Cássio Alencar Nunes, and Dr Rafaella Maciel) and QuipoTech (Dr Eduardo Krempser, Lucimar Cunha and André Demori), with support from many other collaborators and institutions (see our teams).
During this phase, TAOCA and Project SYNERGIZE were coordinated by the University of Bristol (Dr Filipe França) and Embrapa Amazônia Oriental (Dr Joice Ferreira), with funding from CNPq/SinBiose and Lancaster University.
PHASE 2: EXPANSION TOWARDS FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS (2022–2023)
TAOCA received funding from the University of Bristol, enabling the expansion of its computational structure and its capacity to store and validate ecological datasets from Amazonian freshwater ecosystems.
This was another first for TAOCA, becoming the first database to host standardized ecological data on both terrestrial and freshwater fauna and flora in the Brazilian Amazon.
This expansion was co-led by teams from the University of Bristol (Dr Filipe França, Dr Rafaella Maciel), the Federal University of Pará (Profs Leandro Juen, Luciano Montag and ThaĂsa Michelan), and QuipoTech (Dr Eduardo Krempser, Lucimar Cunha and AndrĂ© Demori), with support from many other collaborators and institutions (see our teams).
During this phase, TAOCA was coordinated by the University of Bristol (Dr Filipe França) and QuipoTech (Dr Eduardo Krempser), with funding from the projects "Scaling up TAOCA: a technological tool to support low-carbon research on Amazonian terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity," coordinated by Drs Filipe França and Eduardo Krempser, and "SynPAm: Synthesis for Policy in Amazonia", coordinated by Dr Filipe França.
PHASE 3: EXPANSION TOWARDS NEW GROUPS AND REGIONS (2023–PRESENT)
In December 2022, TAOCA's future took a major leap forward when our National Institute of Science and Technology on Synthesis of Amazonian Biodiversity (INCT-SinBiAm) was awarded funding by CNPq, allowing us to expand on everything we had built so far.
TAOCA is now expanding its framework to receive ecological datasets from other biological groups (terrestrial mammals and butterflies) and Amazonian countries.
TAOCA is currently coordinated by the INCT-SinBiAm steering committee: Prof Leandro Juen (Federal University of Pará), Dr Filipe França (University of Bristol/Federal University of Pará), Dr Juliana Schietti (National Institute of Amazonian Research) and Prof FabrĂcio Baccaro (Federal University of Amazonas), together with Dr Eduardo Krempser (QuipoTech), with support from many other collaborators and institutions (see our teams).
In this phase, we have received funding from several projects: INCT-SinBiAm, funded by CNPq and coordinated by Prof Leandro Juen, Dr Juliana Schietti, Dr Filipe França and Prof FabrĂcio Baccaro; PPBio-AmOr (Biodiversity Research Programme of the Eastern Amazonia), funded by CNPq and coordinated by Prof Leandro Juen, Prof Grazielle Teodoro and Dr Filipe França; FLORAmOr (Biodiversity Monitoring Network of Forests and Streams of the Eastern Amazon), funded by CNPq and coordinated by Dr Filipe França; PELD-AmOr (Long-term Monitoring of Socio-Ecological Patterns in Eastern Amazonian Ecosystems), funded by CNPq and coordinated by Prof ThaĂsa Michelan, Dr Filipe França and Prof Leandro Juen; and PanTropIn (Drivers and impacts of insect biodiversity changes across pantropical forests), funded by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.
Our Data
We host standardized ecological data from Amazonian forest and aquatic ecosystems, including birds, dung beetles, ants, mammals, macroinvertebrates, macrophytes and fish.
