Scientific objectives

The main objective of the IIMyC is to identify the processes occurring in the interface ecosystems of the Argentinean Sea (marshes, coastal areas -estuaries, dunes, intertidal areas- and sea fronts) and their related watersheds. The continental shelf is conceivable, at a landscape scale, as a set of patches of different water masses, which define different types of interfaces in their contact zones. These interfaces can vary both in their temporal and geographic scales, as well as in their physicochemical, oceanographic and biological characteristics, providing complex study systems. In addition, the continent-ocean interface is an ecologically important component, acting as an area of direct interaction between components of these systems and the atmosphere. Understanding the processes occurring at this interface is a challenge, since it is necessary to change the classical conception that assumes that each biome needs or possesses its own theoretical concepts. However, such knowledge can be successfully transferred and/or connected, generating an advance in the general understanding of the functioning of biomes under a novel perspective.
The research scope of this institute, therefore, promotes the development of theoretical conceptions facilitating progress in the knowledge of the different study systems and their interactions.