History

Our Group has been developing its activities since the year 2000 within the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP) facilities, as well as to actively participate in many research projects funded by INIDEP, CONICET, ANPCyT, and UNMDP.

Changes in composition, relative abundance and distribution of planktonic taxa and species in particular can significantly affect the functioning of marine ecosystems, since they propagate through trophic food webs affecting the biogeochemical cycles in the ocean. In the current context of global warming and climate change, these changes have an even higher relevance.

Therefore, the main goals of our research group are (i) to study the diversity of the several planktonic taxa in different sectors of the Argentine Sea; (ii) to analyze its temporal and spatial scales of variation and the effect of environmental factors upon this variability; and (iii) to evaluate the possible implications of such variations upon higher trophic levels. Within the zooplanktonic groups studied, crustaceans (copepods, cladocerans, hyperiid amphipods and euphausiids) are dominant and play a key role in fish food webs. In frontal areas, particularly, these groups form dense assemblages that constitute feeding and nursery grounds for fish and mollusks species.

It is worth noting that, since the beginning of the group up to present, several graduate and doctoral thesis have been finished. Moreover, the members of the group have been abroad to capacitate and specialize in their research lines. Human resources formation is currently going on.