History
By its nature, the project promotes interdisciplinary work with various projects from the National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP), encompassing both environmental and fisheries studies, as well as with working groups from other national and international institutions. Therefore, the Fisheries Ecology Project (Subprogram: Fishery Ecosystems, Program: Marine Environment, Pelagic Fisheries and Environment, INIDEP) develops interdisciplinary research with an ecological focus related to the marine environment and fisheries. The emphasis has been placed on determining the mechanisms that control biological processes in high-productivity regions of the Argentine Sea.
The project's activities are fundamentally related to the role of ocean fronts on the diversity, production, and life histories of marine organisms (further details can be found on the Project's website: http://www.ecologiapesquera.com.ar/index.php). The aim is to assess the degree of influence that frontal zones have on biological production and biodiversity at a regional scale. For this purpose, we utilize historical databases and annual INIDEP research surveys (our own campaigns and collaborations with other projects within the institute). This includes information on the distribution, abundance, and species richness of fish, plankton, and benthic communities in relation to three main frontal zones: Río de la Plata, Península Valdés, and the Shelf Break (Talud). We also work with data from the commercial fleet (incidental catches, satellite monitoring), port monitoring, and information obtained from laboratory and field experiments (experiments with the gastropod Rapana venosa, the scallop Zygochlamys patagonica, the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, the jellyfish Liriope tetraphylla and Clytia sp., and the copepod Acartia tonsa).
The equipment routinely used includes different types of bottom trawl nets for fish sampling, as well as specific gear for plankton and benthos sampling (Bongo, Multinet, Motoda, Nackthai, epibenthic sled, various types of dredges, Van Veen and Day grabs, etc.), in addition to instruments for collecting oceanographic data and other environmental variables. Several members of the Fisheries Ecology group also have experience working aboard international vessels in the shelf break region, Antarctica, and the South Atlantic.