New publication at Communication Earth & Environment.
We are very happy that this Perspective article has finally been published, together with our colleague and Director of the …
We work in interdisciplinary research in the area of global change and coastal marine ecosystems in order to provide information for sustainable management of marine resources, and global change adaptation strategies of coastal communities dependent on ecosystem services provided by the ocean.
Credits cover photo: Mar. Biol. Hugo Carrillo
The “Coastal Ecosystems & Global Environmental Change Lab” (ECCA Lab) is Professor Cristian Vargas’s research lab at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences & EULA Environmental Sciences Center, Universidad de Concepcion, Chile. We work in interdisciplinary research in the area of global change and coastal marine ecosystems in order to provide information for sustainable management of marine resources, and global change adaptation strategies of coastal communities dependent on ecosystem services provided by the ocean.
Our methodological approaches combine observational oceanography & carbon biogeochemistry (e.g. sensors/loggers, satellite mapping and field campaigns), the use of field and laboratory experiments of different physiological traits (e.g. feeding, respiration, growth, among others), complemented with the use of different tools, such as, stable isotopes or fatty acid biomarker, as well as synthesis work.
Our experimental work focuses on a wide spectrum of marine organisms, from bacteria, phytoplankton, holoplankton (copepods), to larval stages and adult individuals of marine intertidal/subtidal invertebrates. Dr. Vargas and his lab group are specifically focused on understand whether and how coastal species can respond and/or adapt to future changes in the ocean, including changes driven by multiple-stressors, such as, ocean warming, ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and their interactive effects with local/global pollutants.
Some examples of the kind of research we are working on:
- What is the influence of local processes, such as river flows and coastal upwelling, on the natural variability of physical-chemical oceanographic conditions in coastal areas?
- How human-intervention (e.g. changing river runoff; changing land-uses) can modify such natural variability regimes in the coastal zone?
- What is the potential biological resilience of local marine populations upon future global change scenarios altering natural variability regimes?
- What is the impact of ocean warming and/or acidification driven by rising atmospheric CO2 on the different physiological traits of different marine populations (local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity)?
- What is the interactive effect of ocean warming and/or ocean acidification with other stressors (e.g. oxygen and/or pollutants) on the physiology of marine species?
- Can current natural variability along environmental gradients present an opportunity to identify ‘environmental refuge’ for marine species upon global change?
- What are the effects of global stressors on human societies?, and What can decision-makers do for ensure coastal zone sustainability?
Our laboratory group is also interested in using the scientific results to engage with industry stakeholders or policymakers for exploring potential adaptation strategies of local communities to climate and global change impacts.
Understanding current progress and the knowledge gaps that the industry perceives as important can help scientists and policymakers to trigger and support individual and collective actions towards sustainability.
For this purpose, we work closely with sociologists, socio-ecologists, and economists, aiming to understand the human dimension of global change impacts in coastal ecosystems.
In this context, we have emphasized the cross or multidisciplinary training for our Lab graduate students, which are typically co-tutored by colleagues from different areas (e.g. geographers, sociologists, economists, evolutive biologists, and so on); on this way, we allowed them to naturally develop a multidisciplinary perspective around their specific research interests.
Finally, we work collaboratively with different educational institutions for outreach activities with the active participation of our graduates and postdoc researchers.
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