History

The working group began under the name of the Histology Laboratory of the National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP), changing its name to "Reproductive Ecology of Marine Organisms" (ECOR) in 2015. The activities of the ECOR group are currently framed within various research programs of this institution, in addition to participating in projects funded by other national and international agencies. Since the early 1990s, the tasks of this lab have focused on researching aspects of importance for fishery stock assessment, using histology as the main tool, applied within a population analysis context. Considering this premise, work has been carried out primarily on reproduction, as it constitutes the most relevant biological process for population renewal. In this sense, during these years of research, aspects such as reproductive dynamics, spawning mechanism, maturation process, reproductive potential, and spatial and temporal delimitation of spawning have been determined for more than 25 species of marine fish and invertebrates. Other related topics have also been studied, such as energy distribution patterns based on the annual cycle and nutritional condition during different stages of the organisms' life history. Currently, research has also begun into fish reproductive physiology through hormone assays, particularly in the elasmobranch group. In all cases, biological information is analyzed within the context of the physical environment, which has allowed us to describe the reproductive tactics adopted, movements in spawning areas, recruitment mechanisms, and mortality processes associated with oceanographic conditions.

Regarding human resource training, over the years the research group has supervised numerous Research Seminars at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), undergraduate theses at the National University of Mar del Plata (UNMdP), doctoral theses at UNMdP and UBA, and research fellowships (Doctoral and Postdoctoral) from INIDEP and CONICET. Funding has been obtained from FONCyT and CONICET, and the group has participated in the evaluation of research projects, fellowships, competitions, career entry processes, publications, and the organization of international scientific meetings.