Students:

Research Lines

The main objective of our research is to better understand the patterns and processes of speciation at different geographical and temporal scales, using particular biological objects that illustrate speciation events from the past and present. Considering broad geographic and temporal scales, we want to clarify the origin and evolution of the Antarctic benthic marine fauna, establishing phylogenetic relationships between congeneric invertebrate species from Antarctica and South America. On a regional scale, taking advantage of Chile's geographical location, we are comparing patterns of genetic differentiation for different vertebrate species throughout their distribution ranges. Our results have had an important application in the definition of management units for South American artiodactyls and the development of conservation projects for guanaco and vicuña. On a reduced scale, we are investigating the endemic genus Orestias, a fish from the salt flats of the Chilean highlands, to determine whether the current aridity of the Andean highlands favors small-scale differentiation and thus be able to offer an explanation for the presence of congeneric species of Orestias in the past. At the same time, we are studying how cyclical historical processes such as El Niño/Southern Oscillation events, the Pacific Decadal Oscillations, and, on a broader time scale, Pleistocene glaciations, shape the spatial and temporal patterns of the intraspecific genetic variation. In the marine field we are investigating the variations in size of recent and past populations of pelagic fish that inhabit highly productive upwelling systems in the eastern Pacific, both in the southern and northern hemisphere, in relation to the exploitation regime imposed by the activity. industrial fishing.

Our Graduates (since 2000):