PhD student : Claudia MATURANA (2019-2021)

Supervisor (ASR): Pierre Galand (LECOB)
Co-supervisor: Camila Fernandez (LOMIC)

General information:
The southern Patagonia of Chile concentrates one of the largest reserves of fresh water in the world, which makes it a key region for the development of anthropogenic and productive activities. The coast of the Antarctic Peninsula is characterized by being very vulnerable to climate change and being an area of ​​high biodiversity and biomass production, presenting diverse and complex ecosystems that harbor rich marine communities controlled by local and regional oceanographic processes. For the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic zones, a decrease in ice cover is predicted, which will affect the marine and coastal systems, transforming its structure and altering the dominant species, their functioning and productivity levels. Regarding the structure of bacterial communities in bodies of waters of high latitudes with the entrance of fresh water from glaciers, different studies have reported presence of the three domains of life Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya. Studies carried out in fjords of the southern Patagonia of Chile, suggest that the melting of glaciers would favour the development of microorganisms adapted to cold and low salinity during a scenario of high discharge, generating in this way changes in the structure of the normal microbial community and possible changes in the trophic web.

The Yendegaia fjord is characterized for being a low nutrient system and for presenting l