History

The Zooología-Invertebrados research group was created in 1991 in the Department of Biology of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences (University of Mar del Plata) by Dr. Eduardo Spivak, who led it until his retirement in 2019, with the objective of studying the natural history (sensu Bartholomew, 1984) of crustaceans and brackish water polychaetes. In a first stage the objective was the characterization of the population structure of several species of crabs and shrimp that inhabit the Mar Chiquita lagoon (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina), such as Cyrtograpsus angulatus, Neohelice (= Chasmagnathus) granulata, Uca uruguayensis and Palaemonetes argentinus, and the reef-building polychaete Ficopomatus enigmaticus. In a second stage, the effort was directed to the study of the reproductive and larval biology of the first two species, establishing the existence of a strategy for the export of larvae from the estuary to the sea and estimating fertility and reproductive investment. Based on the knowledge acquired, the effect of low salinities and temperature on embryos, larvae and juveniles of N. granulata, C. angulatus and P. argentinus and the patterns and processes associated with recruitment and the survival of the first juvenile stages of crabs. Subsequently, other species of crustaceans were added, such as the rock crab Danielethus (Platyxanthus) crenulatus, the mud crab Panopeus meridionalis, the pea crab Calyptraeotheres garthi, the native alpheid shrimp Betaeus lilianae, the invasive shrimp Palalusemonal macro and shrimp Palalusemonáceo. Tanais dulongii and several species of native and invasive amphipods. In this way, the topics addressed were expanded and reproductive behavior and maternal care, mating systems, growth and molting, ovarian development, osmoregulation of embryos and larvae, ecophysiology, feeding behavior and translation, and an interdisciplinary project was developed on the relationships between predation on crabs by birds and their neurobiology. In addition, the larval morphology of several species of crabs was described. Many of these studies were carried out within the framework of the latitudinal differences detected in life history traits and the relationships between connectivity, larval migration, genetic differentiation of populations and biogeography, and included samplings and experiments in Bahía Blanca (Buenos Aires Province ), San Antonio Oeste (Río Negro Province) and the San José Gulf (Chubut Province), as well as Mar Chiquita. Currently, studies are also being carried out on the effect of stressors such as ocean acidification, artificial lighting and sound on different aspects of the life history and ecology of crustaceans, the behavior and personality of invasive species, the ecophysiological mechanisms of tolerance to the salinity of palaemonid shrimp from different environments and the behavioral and morphological effects of alarm signals and predation during the embryonic stage in the same group of crustaceans. The results obtained were published in more than 150 articles in indexed international specialized journals, and book chapters. During the period 1991-2021, more than 20 undergraduate and 12 doctoral theses were completed, and international agreements were established with Germany, Spain, and France, and cooperations with researchers from Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Italy, Puerto Rico, the United States, England and New Zealand.