arissa M. Pires-Teixeira is a PhD student and Master by the Postgraduate Program in Ecology and Evolution of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (PPGEE-UERJ), Bachelor of Biology with emphasis in Ecology by Veiga de Almeida University (UVA). She has been part of the UERJ's Benthic Marine Ecology Laboratory since 2010, where she develops research on marine food webs and invasive marine species. She has eight published articles and two book chapters.