Mercedes Bustamante is a full professor at the University of Brasília, with experience in ecology with an emphasis on ecosystem ecology, working primarily on the following topics: land use change, biogeochemistry, and global environmental change. She is the author of the chapter "Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Uses" of the 5th and 6th Reports of Working Group 3 (Mitigation) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Mercedes is co-coordinator of the chapter "Drivers of Change" of the Regional Assessment for the Americas (IPBES). She was elected member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences, and the United States National Academy of Sciences, and was awarded the National Order of Scientific Merit in 2018.