“Traveling more than 12,000 kilometers for my first job, was it worth it? 100% sure it is! The adventure began on September 29, 2022 with a flight from my country of origin: Belgium. The trip was a disaster, everything that could go wrong, went wrong, but after being trapped in Madrid for almost three days, I left Europe and arrived in Punta Arenas.
The objective of my trip was to work as a research assistant for PhD. Karin Gérard, principal researcher at the BASE Millennium Institute. Last year I had already been in Punta Arenas for a month in the context of my master’s thesis on starfish in Magellan and I fell in love with this beautiful region. Thanks to Dr. Karin Gérard, I had the opportunity to come back.
Luka Vantomme with the principal researcher the BASE Millennium Institute, Dr. Karin Gerard. Photo: BASE Millennium I. / C. Barrientos
Although I learned the basics of Spanish a few months before coming, I arrived in Chile without being able to say almost anything. Fortunately, the people are very nice, they were very (very!) Patients with me and my level of baby speech. Thanks to them I have learned very quickly. I started playing volleyball, I met people and in the end they became my best friends whom I will miss a lot. With them I went to visit Faro San Isidro, Faro Dungeness, Villa Dorotea, the Magallanes National Reserve, and they took me to try the famous choripanes of the “Kiosko Roca”, and also completos, pichangas, and chorillanas.
On the other hand, I am also very grateful to my colleagues from the Laboratory of Antarctic and Subantarctic Marine Ecosystems (LeMAS), led by PhD. Andrés Masilla. They were always very cool and the work environment seemed like a family. Thanks to Karin’s trust in me, I was able to work calmly and independently.
LmAS team together with a researchers from Belgium and France. Photo: BASE Millennium I. / C. Barrientos
At the end of my stay in Chile, colleagues came from Belgium and France with whom I had the opportunity to go diving in the small, beautiful and southern city of Puerto Williams. At this time of the year (end of March) the weather began to change and I saw my first snowfall from Chile (and I dived for the first time in snow ☺).
After an April full of diving, meetings with friends and farewells, it was time to return to Belgium.
I will never forget the people, nature, and the memories of Punta Arenas. Thank you all!”
Written by: Luka Vantomme
Main picture: BASE Millennium I. /C. Barrientos
Together with sub-Antarctic research teams, the alternate director of the Millennium Biodiversity Institute of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems (BASE), PhD. Julieta Orlando, participated in coordination, interdisciplinary and scientific collaboration sessions.
In a meeting around international collaboration, scientific development and knowledge transfer, the Cape Horn Subantarctic Center inaugurated this Monday, May 15, its research center in Puerto Williams, with the aim of promoting excellent research from the Region Magellan and Chilean Antarctic.
Alternate director of the BASE Millennium Institute, PhD. Julieta Orlando, together with the director of CHIC, PhD. Ricardo Rozzi. Photo: BASE Millennium I./ N. Politis.
An environment of cooperation and exchange of knowledge that was highlighted by the Regional Governor of Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctic, Jorge Flies, who emphasized the local perspective that will be promoted from Puerto Williams: “The great dream is for it to be a region of world science. That is where having the BASE Millennium Institute, the University of Magallanes with CADI-UMAG, and what in a few years will be the International Antarctic Center (CAI), will allow us to achieve the highest rate of scientists per population in America, with 1 in every 120 inhabitants”, he pointed out.
While the CHIC director and principal investigator PhD. Ricardo Rozzi, highlighted the interdisciplinary work between centers: “Collaboration is a necessary condition to address problems that are complex, and the BASE-CHIC couple expresses the complementarity in collaborations, as a couple mutualist. This avoids, with limited resources, redundancy, which leads to instruments shared by BASE and CHIC, contributing to the ecosystem of centers of excellence in the Antarctic capital of Chile”.
While the director of the UMAG headquarters in Puerto Williams, Francisca Massardo highlighted collaboration as a tool for global change, to contribute to the study of environmental crises: “I think that having an infrastructure of the quality we have is a privilege and a permanent invitation to people to approach and develop research that has many points of view, to generate results among people”, he said.
Alternate director of the BASE Millennium Institute, PhD. Julieta Orlando, together with the alternate director of CHIC, PhD. Lorena Medina. Photo: BASE Millennium I. /N. Politis.
Collaboration from the Millennium Biodiversity Institute of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems (BASE) was represented through its alternate director, PhD. Julieta Orlando: “It is essential to link up, participate, and continue strengthening our ties with the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC), since we are not only linked through a shared affiliation of our researchers and researchers, but we are also building collaboration through work in research laboratories and the training of human capital with doctoral students”, she said.
PhD. Orlando, also an academic at the University of Chile and vice president of the Chilean Society for Microbiology (SOMICH), also met with researchers linked to both centers of excellence: PhD. Tamara Contador, PhD. Máximo Frangopulos, PhD. Roy Mackenzie, Melisa Gañán, Javier Rendoll and PhD. Brenda Riquelme. The instance allowed the development of field trips and the design of scientific collaboration in the field of publication and project development.
Research advances
In addition to the research and project development meetings, the alternate director of the BASE Millennium Institute, PhD. Orlando, attended the “First CHIC International Conference: Global Change and Biocultural Conservation”, which will take place until Friday, May 19 at the Cape Horn Sub-Antarctic Center promoted by CHIC. In the instance, researchers from the BASE Millennium Institute, CHIC, INVASAL and the University of Magallanes (UMAG) participated.
Team of researchers at the BASE Millennium Institute-CHIC . Photo: BASE Millennium I. /C. Barrientos.
With the talk “Phenology and life cycles of aquatic insects: sentinels of climate change” PhD. Tamara Contador reflected on bioethical scientific research, with emphasis on understanding Climate Change in invertebrates and sub-Antarctic and Antarctic ecosystems. The UMAG, CHIC and INVASAL researcher highlighted how adaptability and distribution can provide new responses to scientific research.
During the conference there will be scientific poster sessions, beginning on Tuesday May 16 with presentations by researchers CHIC-BASE Millennium Institute, Dr. Máximo Frangopulos, Melisa Gañán and Javier Rendoll. More information, and live streaming, at https://capehorncenter.com
By: Marcelo Sotomayor
Pictures: Nadia Politis y Constanza Barrientos
With the aim of developing initiatives for the study and conservation of biodiversity at the national level, based on scientific evidence and the use of data, the scientists from the BASE Millennium Institute PhD. Claudia Maturana and Melisa Gañán will add their knowledge of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic biodiversity.
May 03, 2023.- Promote and encourage free access to biodiversity data in the country and promote collaboration between national and international initiatives related to biodiversity data, are part of the objectives of the GBIF Chile Node, and that after the creation of a multisectoral work group, will have the participation of Claudia Maturana, PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and affiliated researcher at the BASE Millennium Institute, and Melisa Gañán, a doctoral student from the BASE Millennium Institute and the University of Barcelona.
Doctoral researcher at the BASE Millennium Institute, Melisa Gañan. Photo: BASE Millennium I./ N. Politis
Thus, with the aim of drafting a governance proposal for the GBIF Chile network that allows the development, in its implementation, of a collaborative framework of community policies, agreements, norms and standards, systematic work has begun with researchers: “The results they will be proposed to interested parties to guide the exchange, publication, management and use of data on biodiversity in Chile”, points out Melisa Gañán, also a researcher at the University of Magallanes, of the Millennium Nucleus of Southern Invading Salmonids (INVASAL) and the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC).
The work also seeks to articulate the work of the different public and private representatives that provide Biodiversity data and determine how public policies in the country can be strengthened: “Before, anyone who wanted to be part of the collaborators could upload data, but now they You want to create a policy that protocolizes and shapes the data. What is published, how they impact and which ones could have priority”, says PhD. Claudia Maturana, also a researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB) and the CHIC Center.
Attached researcher at the BASE Millennium Institute, Melisa Gañan. Photo: BASE Millennium I./ C. Barrientos
Thus, the Millennium Biodiversity Institute of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Ecosystems (BASE), the Millennium Nucleus of Southern Invading Salmonids (INVASAL), and the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB) through the researchers Gañán and Maturana, will actively work on the table of governance to design an articulated operating structure. This structure, even with an initial development, “will make it possible to face challenges in terms of management and information on the country’s biodiversity”, both scientists emphasize, with research work in Santiago and Puerto Williams.
GBIF or Global Biodiversity Information Facility is an intergovernmental initiative that arises from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with the aim of creating an accessible information network on biodiversity, in order to facilitate and promote scientific research. The GBIF Chile Node is managed by the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) which, as a signatory entity, is responsible for its implementation.
The governance table is made up of representatives from public sector institutions, universities, scientific entities, the private sector, museums, non-governmental organizations and citizen science, all GBIF partners who must have experience in publishing biodiversity data. Specifically, this Board is made up of the Millennium BASE Institute, the University of Chile, the University of Magallanes, the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Agriculture (SUBPESCA), the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), Econativa Consultores, Cienciambiental Consultores, the Center for Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Museum of Natural History, Museum of Zoology of the University of Concepción, and the NGO Alianza Zona Norte de Quilpué.
Main photography: BASE Millennium I./ Claudia Maturana
Researchers from the Millennium Institute of Biodiversity of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems (BASE), Dr. Juliana Vianna and Dr. Fabiola León, became the first Latin American group of scientists to obtain Emperor penguin samples after returning from an international Antarctic campaign that reached the remote Larsen B ice shelf.
Santiago, April 25, 2023 – An international expedition that ventured into deep Antarctica, together with a meticulous work plan, were the ingredients for the researchers from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, PhD.Juliana Vianna and PhD. Fabiola León, to become the first Latin American scientists who -from Chile- obtained emperor penguin samples, after a 15-day Antarctic campaign to the inhospitable Weddell Sea.
Researchers from the Millennium Institute BASE in the field. Image: M. Institute BASE/ N. Politis
“It was an important preparation work, which began with a monitoring of the scientific work that has been carried out worldwide on emperor penguins, together with the field work, which required walking for several hours on a floating ice platform in the so-called East Antarctic in the Atlantic Ocean”, emphasizes PhD. Juliana Vianna, professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, researcher at the Millennium Institute BASE, and also alternate director of the Center for Genome Regulation (CRG).
Sub-zero temperatures, strict biosafety protocols and walks of more than five hours on the ice were part of the work carried out by both UC scientists in Antarctica. The challenge consisted in taking blood samples from four adult emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri), information that will be analyzed in the coming months in Santiago, thanks to state-of-the-art analysis methodologies that will be developed by scientific teams of the Laboratory of Molecular Biodiversity of the UC Faculty of Biological Sciences. The results will allow us to know details of the genetic and evolutionary history of the emperor penguins, and how this species faces the Climate Change in the Antarctic continent.Years of penguin research
“The results of this expedition will complement the work we have been doing for several years on the genetics of penguins such as the Southern Yellow Tufted (Eudyptes chrysocome), Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) and Adelie (Pygoscelis adeliae),” says Vianna Ph.D., also a researcher at the UC Institute for Sustainable Development and the LiLi Millennium Nucleus.
Emperor penguin. Image: M. Institute BASE/ N. Politis
“Our work, a pioneer in the field of scientific research with emperor penguins carried out from Chile, included strict biosecurity protocols – such as the use of masks, goggles and gloves – and also took care not to disturb the emperors, which are not accustomed to human presence in these remote latitudes,” says PhD. Fabiola León, research assistant at the Millennium Institute BASE.
Adult emperor penguins can weigh between 20 and 45 kilos, and can exceed 120 cm in height. The blood samples were obtained from the birds’ feet through a procedure that lasted between four to five minutes, and ended with a small water-based dye mark on the penguins’ chests, which allowed the scientists to identify the species to be studied.
During the weeks that the research team was in the deep Antarctic, PhD. Juliana Vianna and PhD. Fabiola León, together with the support of Julieta Orlando Ph.D from University of Chile and Fabiola León Ph.D, were able to identify the species to be studied. Julieta Orlando from the University of Chile, and the logistic team of the French companies SEDNA Expeditions and Ponant, took samples of Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), Antarctic tern (Sterna vittata) and Antarctic cormorant (Leucocarbo bransfieldensis) in the framework of the International Scientific Collaboration Expedition: Weddell Sea and Larsen B Ice Shelf, carried out by the Millennium Institute BASE and scientists from France, United Kingdom and United States at the beginning of this year.
Researchers from the Millennium Institute BASE in the field. Image: M. Institute BASE/ N. Politis
The polar researchers emphasize the importance of collaboration and interdiscipline, anticipating that during this year the penguins will continue to make news from Chile: “Between September 4 and 9 the entire scientific community will meet in Viña del Mar as we will hold the XI International Penguin Congress (https://www.penguin-conference.com), which still has some places available“, says PhD. Vianna.
The Millennium Institute of Biodiversity of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems, also known as Millennium Institute BASE, belongs to the Millennium Science Initiative, a program of the National Research and Development Agency (ANID), belonging to the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of Chile. More information at institutobase.cl/en/
Photographs and text: Millennium Institute BASE
Aimed at undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students, this year the course has researchers from the Millennium Institute for Biodiversity of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems (BASE), and seeks to address different subjects related to Antarctic sciences.
April 20, 2023.- Since 2016, the Faculty of Natural and Oceanographic Sciences of the University of Concepción (UdeC) has the elective of Antarctic Ecosystems. This year, contents such as microbial ecology, biogeographic processes, conservation, governance, among others, will be taught by principal and affiliated researchers from the Millennium Institute BASE.
The first class of the elective, held on Thursday, April 13, was led by PhD. Angie Díaz, UdeC academic and main researcher at the Millennium Institute BASE, who introduced the students and presented the main guidelines of the course. She also addressed content related to the geological and climatic history of Antarctica (environmental conditions and glaciations) and the history and evolution of the Southern Ocean (Antarctic Circumpolar Current, water masses, and sea ice).
PhD. Angie Díaz explains that her motivation for taking this course was “to be able to show the science that is carried out in Antarctica from undergraduate level and approach it as a probable goal of study, particularly my area, which is the evolution of marine life in the southern ocean”. In addition, she adds that her objective has always been to “encourage Antarctic sciences, especially in the lines that the Millennium Institute BASE works in the different Universities, and encourage the interaction of researchers and students, among all the Institutions involved”.
PhD. Angie Díaz in the first class of the UdeC Antarctic Ecosystems course. Photo: I. Millennium BASE/M. sotomayor
In the next sessions, matters related to microbial ecology will be addressed; biochemical cycles and greenhouse gases; biogeographical processes in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean; the role of adaptation from a physiological perspective; biogeographic processes in terrestrial and marine biota; conservation, climate change and human impact; and Antarctic Treaty System (ATS).
For the first time, the main researchers from the Millennium Institute BASE will participate: academics from the University of Chile (Uch), PhD. Elie Poulin, PhD. Julieta Orlando and PhD. Luis Valentín Ferrada; the academics of the Austral University of Chile (UAch), PhD. Claudio González-Wevar and PhD. Luis Vargas Chacoff; the academic from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC), PhD. Juliana Vianna; the academic from the University of Magallanes, Dr. Tamara Contador; and the researcher from the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), PhD. César Cárdenas. The academic body will also include the researcher attached to the Millennium Institute BASE, also from the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB), PhD. Claudia Maturana.
This elective specialization course is carried out in a hybrid format and is counting on undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students from the UCh, UC, UACh, UMAG and Andrés Bello University (Unab). One of the big changes this year is the inclusion of Postgraduate programs, since previously it was focused only on undergraduate students.
By: Marcelo Sotomayor y Constanza Barrientos
Main picture: M. Institute BASE/ M. Sotomayor
With the aim of long-term monitoring of the biodiversity of the Southern Ocean, within the framework of the LIX Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ECA 59) of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), the Marine Observatory project of the BASE Millennium Institute was completed.
April 14, 2023.- With the installation of a Marine Observatory, the Millennium Biodiversity Institute of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Ecosystems (BASE) completed its scientific work in Antarctica during the 2022-2023 season in Fildes Bay. Using different sampling tools, it was sought to study the changes in the biodiversity of the Southern Ocean, monitoring that will continue to be developed in the coming years.
The team was led by the principal investigator of the Millennium Institute BASE , also from the University of Magallanes (UMAG) and the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC), PhD. Karin Gerard; and counted on the work of the academic of the University of Sorbonne and researcher of the Station Marine de Concarneau of the National Museum of Natural History of France, PhD. Cyril Gallut; the marine biologist from the Austral University of Chile (UACh)Vicente Villabolos; and the professional diver, Alberto Ahumada.
The Marine Observatory seeks to establish baselines of marine biodiversity, through different sampling methods: water filtration to obtain environmental DNA, the installation of an Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS), fishing trawling and autonomous diving. It is intended to cover a range of dimension and wide development, in order to monitor the dynamics of variation of marine diversity over ten years and see the effects of climate change.
Highlighting the impact of the scientific work carried out, PhD. Karin Gerard, also a researcher at the Laboratory of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Ecosystems (LmAS-UMAG), directed by PhD. Andrés Mansilla, explained that the environmental DNA obtained by the filtration of water from sea “allows detecting the presence of species without the need to collect them”, while with autonomous diving it is possible to reach organisms located up to 30 meters deep. On the other hand, “with the trawl you can get much deeper benthic macroorganisms, and with the ARMS facility, you can go as deep as 15 to 20 meters”, she said.
Marine Observatory Team at ECA59 of INACH. Image by PhD. Karin Gerard.
As indicated by PhD. Cyril Gallut, the ARMS were installed in the Ross Sea in Terra Nova Bay, and in the Dumont d’Urville Sea in the Pointe Géologie archipelago. “Thanks to an international collaboration we will be able to compare the biodiversity and settlement dynamics of benthic species at the level of the Southern Ocean,” he said.
ARMS are structures made of PVC plates that function as artificial reefs on which benthic flora and fauna settle. After one, two and three years, these ARMS will be removed to identify, by metabarcoding, the life that has developed in them. “Comparing different years we will be able to see the dynamics of recruitment of organisms”. They will be installed in two sites, Bahía Fildes and Yelcho, the first being more likely to receive exotic species due to intense maritime traffic”, explained the principal investigator of the BASE Millennium Institute.
“Antarctica has a unique biodiversity on the planet that has been little studied. As we have grown as a society we have increased the risk of disrupting it and therefore losing it forever. The Marine Observatory installed by the Millennium Institute BASE and PhD. Gerard is crucial in avoiding this catastrophe, since it allows us to generate detailed information about the communities that inhabit this vulnerable region and move towards its conservation”, expressed the UACh researcher, Vicente Villalobos. .
“It is very important to have a baseline as soon as possible, to be able to see the changes. See which species arrive and which, in the short or medium term, manage to establish themselves in the marine environment. It is essential to have this Observatory and to continue monitoring it over time”, said the Director of the Millennium Institute BASE, Dr. Elie Poulin.
This project is part of the “Observatory” line of research of the Millennium Institute BASE, whose objective is to contribute to improving knowledge about biodiversity in Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic areas and to initiate long-term monitoring of biodiversity through marine areas and terrestrial ecosystems. to detect significant changes as a consequence of climate changes induced by human activity.
By: Constanza Barrientos
Main picture: César Cárdenas
The installation of biodiversity observatories and the collection of samples for genomic studies were some of the activities carried out this 2022-2023 Antarctic season by researchers from the BASE Millennium Institute on the white continent.
April 11, 2023.- At least 30 researchers from the Millennium Institute BASE were part of the LIX Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ECA 59) coordinated by the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH). From January to early March 2023, they carried out work in various areas of the Antarctic peninsula and the South Shetland islands.
Biodiversity observatories
In the area of Bahía Fildes, King George Island, a team led by the principal investigator of the Millennium Institute BASE, also the University of Magallanes, PhD. Karin Gerard, carried out the installation of the Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS) of the Marine Observatory. In addition, recordings were made with benthic sleds, sample collection with trawls and phytoplankton nets.
l’s teama Dra. Karin Gerard was made up of an academic from the Universidad Austral of Chile (UACh) and researcher at the Institute of Marine and Limnological Sciences (ICML), Vincente Villabolos; the academic of the University of Sorbonne and researcher of the Station Marine Concarneau of the National Museum of Natural History of France, PhD. Cyril Gallut; and the professional diver, Alberto Ahumada.
For its part, the team led by the PhD. Tamara Contador, an academic at the University of Magallanes and a researcher at the Millennium Institute BASE, the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC), and the Millennium Nucleus of Southern Invasive Salmonids (INVASAL), installed sensors to measure environmental parameters, and collected samples of freshwater and terrestrial invertebrates, in the area of Fildes Bay, Ardely Peninsula and Deception Island.
The installation of the sensors and the sampling were carried out within the framework of the Earth Observatory project together with the academic from the Catholic University of Maule, also an adjunct researcher at the Millennium Institute BASE and CHIC,PhD. Hugo Benítez.
Photograph by Melisa Gañan, doctoral student at the Millennium Institute BASE.
Terrestrial ecology team
PhD. Tamara Contador and PhD. Hugo Benítez also carried out monitoring of fly populations Parochlus steinenii on King George Island, Deception Island and Nelson Island, sampling of Chicken branchinecta and Bockella poppei (within the framework of the postdoctoral project of the researcher affiliated with the Millennium Institute BASE, PhD. Claudia Maturana) and collection of the invasive fly Trichocera maculipennis on King George Island. In the places where they found populations of Parochlus steinenii, B. gainii and B. poppei, made chemical measurement of the lake water.
For her part, the doctoral student at the Millennium Institute BASE, Melisa Gañan, who was aboard the DAP Mares vessel Betanzos, surveyed the land in search of the winged fly Parochlus steinenii, associated with lakes and lagoons, and the wingless fly Belgium Antarctic, which is associated to a greater extent with mosses and terrestrial plants such as Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis.
Next to Melisa Gañan, ishad the undergraduate student at the University of Concepción (UdeC), Micaela Conejeros, who works together with the principal investigator of the Millennium Institute BASE, also a UdeC academic and director of the Biogeography, Macroevolution and Systematics Laboratory (BIOMAS)PhD. Pablo Guerrero. Micaela is dedicated to the search for vascular plants such as Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis.
Photograph by Daniela Nualart, doctoral student at the Millennium Institute BASE.
Collection of lake samples and freshwater invertebrates
The PhD. Angie Díaz, academic at the University of Concepción (UdeC) and principal investigator at the Millennium Institute BASE, together with a doctoral student from the University of Chile, Sebastian Rosenfeld, sailed for 15 days on the DAP Mares vessel Betanzos. By means of diving and collecting on the coast, they obtained samples of marine invertebrates (echinoderms, molluscs and crustaceans) with the aim of generating a biodiversity inventory of the eastern sector of the Antarctic peninsula.
On the other hand, the doctoral student from the University of Chile and the Millennium Institute BASE, Diego Ahumada, dedicated himself to collecting water and sediment samples from 11 different lakes on King George Island, and measuring physicochemical parameters of the water (pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and conductivity) with the aim of studying the bacterial communities of this ecosystem. .
Collection of marine vertebrates
In the area of King George Island, UACh academics and researchers from the Millennium Institute BASE and the IDEAL Center, PhD. Luis Vargas- Chacoffand PhD. Kurt Paschke, together with the doctoral student from the UACh, Centro IDEAL and Millennium Institute BASE, Daniela Nualart, they collected adult fish (Antarctic Harpagifer) and amphipods (Gondogeneia antarctica, Cheirimedon femoratus and Gliptonotus antarcticus) for physiological studies. The team worked together with the Cont Anadromous Fish Research Center of United States, Steve McCormick, and the researcher from the University of Algarve in Portugal, Pedro Guerreiro.
PhD students from the University of Chile and the Millennium Institute BASE, Valentina Bernal and Francisca Rodriguez, also collected samples of Antarctic Harpagifer but in the larva stage and with the support of a bongo network on Greenwich Island, in order to carry out genomic studies.
Photograph of Valentina Bernal, doctoral student at the Millennium Institute BASE.
Study of habitats and sampling for genetic analysis in Antarctic birds
ECA 59 also had the participation of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students from the Instituto Milenio BASE, as was the case of the UACh doctoral student, also the IDEAL Center, Albert Palomino, and the undergraduate student from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) and the UC Molecular Biodiversity Laboratory (directed by PhD. Juliana Vianna), Elisa González, who camped for 70 days at Punta Armonía, Nelson Island. The objective of his stay was to carry out biological sampling, aerial and ground counts, and breeding and post-breeding tracking in chinstrap penguin colonies, under the leadership of the INACH and BASE Millennium Institute researcher, Dr. Lucas Krüger.
More members of the UC Molecular Biodiversity Laboratory team were also present at ECA59. In the vicinity of the General Bernardo O’Higgins base, Claudia Ulloa, a researcher from the Instituto Milenio BASE, along with PUC doctoral student Beatriz Esnard and PUC master’s student Eduardo Pizarro, carried out ecological monitoring studies in gentoo and chinstrap penguins. They carried out the installation of GPS and the obtaining of blood samples, with the aim of studying the use of the habitat by breeding penguins.
Likewise, the UCH doctoral researcher, Daly Noll; the doctoral student of the Andrés Bello University (UNAB), Lucila Morales; and the PUC undergraduate student, Josefina Jorquera; they collected samples of penguins, skuas and cormorants, during the 15 days they were sailing on the Betanzos vessel.
Photograph by Daly Noll, doctoral student at the Millennium Institute BASE.
Works based Professor Julio Escudero
The principal investigator of the Millennium Institute BASE, also a researcher at INACH,PhD. César Cárdenas, remained for about 30 days in the place, carrying out tasks as Head of Base Professor Julio Escuderodel INACH, coordinating the logistical and scientific activities offurther of 12 projects developed during said period.
The doctoral student from the University of Chile, also the Millennium Institute BASE, Magdalena Osorio, Professor Julio Escudero also remained at the base of INACH. The purpose of his stay was to analyze the technical feasibility of being able to carry out his project during the next ECA60 and the logistical requirements to be able to carry out experiments in the aquariums of said base.
Main pictura: M. Institute BASE/ Hugo Benítez
A work carried out by researchers from the Millennium Institute BASE and the Microbial Ecology Laboratory (LEMi) of the University of Chile and which seeks to contribute to the description and conservation of the biodiversity of the ecosystems associated with lichens in the Aysén region and the Magellan region.
April 6, 2023.- The largest collection of basidiomycete yeasts isolated from the thallus of Peltigera lichens and the first collection of yeasts associated with lichens from southern Chile, was published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) by researchers from the Millennium Institute BASE and the Microbial Ecology Laboratory (LEMi) of the University of Chile, guided by Dr. Julieta Orlando.
The initiative was led by Yosbany Pérez, a doctoral student from the University of Chile and also a researcher at LEMi and the Millennium Institute BASE, who pointed out that the work carried out “provided evidence that lichens would act as a specific niche that harbors different microorganisms, including yeasts. Those that are currently considered a new essential component of the symbiosis of lichens. This helps to provide more information about the components of the lichen mycobiome and, therefore, to enhance the conservation of these microorganisms and the ecosystems that surround them.”
The collection studied comprises 180 basidiomycete yeasts isolated and identified from the thallus of four Peltigera lichen species (P. frigida, P. fuscopraetextata, P. rufescens and P. antarctica) collected in southern Chile, specifically in the Coyhaique National Reserve and the Patagonia Natural Park, Tamango sector, located in the Aysén region of General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo; and in the Karukinka Natural Park and Navarino Island, located in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic region.
This study is the first to describe the presence of basidiomycete yeasts in Peltigera lichens. A great diversity of genera of basidiomycetes was found, belonging to the classes Agaricostilbomycetes, Cystobasidiomycetes, Microbotryomycetes and Tremellomycetes. The phylogenetic analyzes carried out suggest the presence of species not reported so far, requiring additional biochemical and physiological studies to describe these potential new species.
Basidiomycete yeast isolates. Image of Yosbany Pérez, doctoral student at the Millennium Institute BASE.
Some basidiomycete yeasts reported in association with lichens have a lifestyle completely dependent on them, so it is highly probable that the lichen species studied are reservoirs of unreported yeasts. The identification of these new yeast species could have future applications in research, for example, in the field of biotechnology.
“It is very important for the entire scientific community that there be free access to these data, so that any research team that needs the information can consult and use it. This platform (GBIF) allows anyone to access the database and be able to think about other investigations”, indicated the data manager of the Millennium Institute BASE, Catalina Marín, who worked with the team in the publication of the data.
For her part, PhD. Julieta Orlando, Alternate Director and principal investigator of the Millennium Institute BASE, stated that “we are committed to ensuring that the information we generate reaches various audiences, since we believe that knowledge of the biodiversity of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic environments it must not only reach decision makers, one of our fundamental objectives, but also other scientific teams and the community in general.”
“We are convinced that, through this transfer of knowledge, it will be possible to generate the necessary awareness to protect the biodiversity of these environments. In this sense, the publication of repositories of various organizations in GBIF is essential for us to make research data easy to find, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR principles)”, added the director of LEMi.
The team was also made up of researchers from LEMi and the University of Chile: Nayla Serey, Natalia Lizana, Katerin Almendras and Juana Leal; and by the academic from the Department of Biology, Geology, Physics and Inorganic Chemistry of the Rey Juan Carlos University (Spain), Ana María Millanes.
Main picture: Peltigera lichens by M. Insitute BASE/ Julieta Orlando
Punta Arenas, April 3, 2023.- Chinstrap penguins, during their reproductive period, feed almost exclusively on krill. But, what will happen to them if the availability of their main food is affected by environmental conditions such as rising temperatures, reduced sea ice and lower marine productivity? Will it negatively impact their populations, their reproduction and, consequently, in their young?
Some answers are contained in a recent study published in Scientific Reports, one of the most important science magazines on the planet, in which researchers from the Scientific Department of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), Francisco Santa Cruz, Lucas Krüger and César Cárdenas participated, these last two are also members of the Millennium Institute for Biodiversity of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Ecosystems (BASE).
Field works. INACH image.
The importance of this article lies in being one of the few works that directly relates food availability, feeding behaviors of a marine predator (chinstrap penguin) and evaluation of environmental parameters. “There are almost no studies linking in a synchronized manner the satellite tracking of marine predators, the acoustic abundance of krill, and satellite environmental information. Even more important is having achieved it during several consecutive campaigns; this allowed us to generate a time series with which we were able to answer key questions. Chile is one of the first countries to achieve this in Antarctica”, says Francisco Santa Cruz, one of the authors of the letter.
In simple words, everything is connected: the amount of sea ice influences the oceanic primary productivity when it melts in spring-summer and, consequently, there is less availability of krill that chinstrap penguins feed on. “The penguins in the study area have adapted in such a way that they synchronize the birth of their chicks with these increases in productivity that are more or less cyclical and predictable. When environmental variations cause oceanic productivity peaks to change in space or time, penguins are probably not able to maintain the same chick survival rates. This is what our results indicated for the colony we have studied”, explains Dr. Lucas Krüger, a specialist in Antarctic birds.
To reach these conclusions, different sampling techniques were combined, such as transects in the INACH Karpuj scientific boat, penguin tracking with GPS devices and TDR depth sensors, as well as aerial photographs taken with a drone. “Thanks to scientific platforms such as Karpuj, we have been able to collect important acoustic data on krill, in order to be able, together with satellite data, to help understand bird feeding patterns and how these are influenced by the environment in the face of changes in krill availability. ”, expressed Dr. César Cárdenas.
The work focused specifically on Punta Armonía, Nelson Island (South Shetland Islands) in the INACH Antarctic Scientific Expeditions of the years 2019-2020 (ECA 56) and 2021-2022 (ECA 58). On the island there is a Specially Protected Antarctic Zone (ASPA), where the environment is protected from human presence in activities such as tourism and intensive research. “In this case, we only focused on Nelson Island, because it is the site where we have been monitoring since 2019, we also took acoustic data to estimate the abundance off the island, which helped to carry out a more complete study that did not it only includes the satellite tracking of the birds”, mentions Cárdenas.
Preliminary results indicate that this population has been reduced by more than half, following the reduction values that were presented in another study, but it remains an important colony of chinstrap penguins in the South Shetland Islands.
In this sense, the study that has just been published is connected to other previous research published by Krüger at the beginning of March, where it is suggested that the increase in the frequency of years of low krill availability due to the increase in winter temperatures , could eventually explain the population trends that are verified in the northernmost areas of the Antarctic peninsula. However, it will be necessary to verify if this phenomenon is repeated in more colonies for this hypothesis to be accepted.
The importance of Marine Protected Areas
For Dr. César Cárdenas, this study is a new piece to the puzzle of the work carried out in the INACH Marine Protected Areas Program and also the annual monitoring that has been carried out at Punta Armonía since 2019. This type of study highlights the importance of protecting The antartica. “The environment is changing, so it is necessary to improve our knowledge of how organisms behave and how they are affected by environmental changes, which will increase in the future according to climate change projections,” he points out.
These INACH researchers are working on a proposal for a Marine Protected Area (AMP) for Domain 1 (Antarctic Peninsula), a tool for ocean conservation and to safeguard biodiversity and manage fisheries, while restoring and preserving the ecosystem function, which is strongly challenged by climate change.
Francisco Santa Cruz and Lucas Krüger in INACH’s Karpuj boat. INACH image.
The MPA for Domain 1 is critical to prevent another driver of krill decline, such as fisheries, from having an additional impact, eventually reducing the ability of chinstrap penguins to adapt to changes in their environment. For example, in periods of low krill availability, fisheries could prevent them from being caught and still available to penguins.
Nuria Salmerón and Solenne Belle also participated in the scientific article “Environmental changes generate less availability of Antarctic krill, affecting the reproduction of chinstrap penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula”, who completed their master’s thesis in 2022 at INACH by the International Master of Science in Marine Biological Resources (IMBRSea), from the University of Ghent, Belgium. As authors, the contribution of Nicolás Alegría from the Fisheries Research Institute (Inpesca), Júlia Gronmann Finger, Denyelle Hennayra Cora and María Virginia Petry from the Ornithology and Marine Animals Laboratory of the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) and Cristina Hernandez from the University of Magallanes.
By: Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH)
Main image: Francisco Santa Cruz
The directors of both centers of the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) will meet on March 16 to share their experiences diving in Antarctic waters, and as part of a collaborative international expedition.
At the meeting, the Director of the Millennium Institute BASE, Dr. Elie Poulin, will share views on diving and science, together with the Director of the Millennium Nucleus NUTME, Alejandro Pérez-Matus, who for 15 days were part of an international scientific expedition that took them through the inhospitable Larsen B platform and diving in the depths of the Weddell Sea, in Antarctica.
Moderated by Nadia Politis, a journalist specialized in science and Director of the Communications Department of the Millennium Institute BASE, the guests will discuss technical aspects of diving in icy waters, their personal experiences in the expedition dives they shared in December 2022 and the impact that diving has on science.
