Proyectos

Reconstrucción del clima del Pleistoceno mediante paleoadn

reconstrucción del clima mediante dendrocronología en madera

We propose to undertake a 3-year long project, devoted to achieving a detailed comprehension of the Li dynamics and impacts, from source to sink, in the Andean salars (including Preandean and high Andean salars) of the Antofagasta Region of Chile (Fig. 1). The methodological approach is multidisciplinary and includes geological, hydrological, mineralogical, geochemical, microbiological and social techniques. The specific study cases are given by the Salar de Atacama (SDA), recognized as the most important Li brine reservoir in Chile (Cabello, 2022), and 3 salt flats domains located eastwards; these latter domains are, from south to north: Northern domain. Pujsa, Tara, and Quisquiro salt lakes. Southern domain. Capur, Talar, and Tuyajto salt lakes. Central domain. Aguas Calientes Sur and Laguna Lejia salt lakes.

Tenacibaculosis is an emerging pathogen recently classified as high-risk disease. Since 2020 it is the second pathogen after Piscirickettsia salmonis producing higher mortalities in Atlantic salmon. Diverses species of Tenacibaculosis has been described in Chile, but Tenacibaculum dicentrarchi present the higher prevalence in culture centers. Before 2018, underreporting of Tenacibaculosis was possible due to the external signology is similar with Piscirickettsiosis. P. salmonis is the main pathogen in Chilean salmon farming, causing the principals mortalities because of diseases. In recent years, concerns related to Tenacibaculosis and Piscirickettsiosis coinfection have increased due to detrimental effects on the health status of fish in comparison to the single infection. Our proposal aim to characterize the immune response elicit by T. dicentrarchi in Atlantic salmon and describe how it is related to a coinfection by P. salmonis. First, we propose the description of the single infection of T. dicentrarchi due to the lack of information about the immune response it induces in Atlantic salmon. Then, we propose the characterization of the coinfection between T. dicentrarchi and P. salmonis and the possible weaker of the health status of the fish due to T. dicentrarchi may favors the development of the secondary infection. Therefore, we hypothesize that “Tenacibaculum dicentrarchi chronic infection triggers a type 2 immunity (Th2/M2) IL-4/13/ IL-10+ phenotype in head kidney and spleen of Atlantic salmon, increasing the secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, which favor and increase the severity of Piscirickettsia salmonis coinfection”. The general objective of the proposal is to demonstrate that a chronic infection of Tenacibaculum dicentrarchi causes in Atlantic salmon a status of head kidney and spleen immunosuppression presented an IL 4/13/ IL-10+ phenotype and increasing the mortality provoked by Piscirickettsia salmonis coinfection. To demonstrate the hypothesis, three specific objectives are proposed. First specific objective is “Characterize the immunological response of the single infection of T. dicentrarchi and coinfection with T. dicentrarchi and P. salmonis in Atlantic salmon under field conditions during outbreak seasons”. For this specific objective, we designed the Trial 1: Field sampling in open-sea cages during a single infection of T. dicentrarchi in winter and a coinfection with T. dicentrarchi and P. salmonis in spring. The analysis of the immune response will be through gene expression by RT-PCR and proteins by ELISA and western blotting. Then, the second objective propose is “Verify the type 2 immunity (Th2/M2) IL-4/13/ IL-10+ phenotype elicit by a T. dicentrarchi infection in Atlantic salmon under controlled conditions of laboratory”. To accomplish this goal we designed the Trial 2: A single infection challenge with T. dicentrarchi in Atlantic salmon in laboratory conditions in order to better characterize the immune response at a cellular level by flow cytometry and a molecular level by RNA-seq, RT-PCR and protein level. The final specific objective is “Characterize at the immunological level the development and severity of P. salmonis infection in Atlantic salmon infected by T. dicentrarchi under controlled conditions of laboratory”. To achieve this objective we designed the Trial 3: A coinfection with T. dicentrarchi and P. salmonis in Atlantic salmon in laboratory conditions with the respective single infection controls of each pathogen and posterior analysis by molecular and protein level. The expected results are: 1) The characterization of the immune response at functional level of the single infection of T. dicentrarchi and the coinfection of T. dicentrarchi and P. salmonis in Atlantic salmon in open-sea cages; 2) Verification that T. dicentrarchi triggers a type 2 immunity (Th2/M2) with an increase in the secretion of cytokine IL-10 demonstrated through transcript, protein, and cellular analysis in laboratory conditions that will let us a better resolution of the immune response characterization in comparison with the field conditions; 3) Characterization of the development of a more harmful P. salmonis infection due to the weaker health status on Atlantic salmon produced by of T. dicentrarchi, which means a higher bacterial load of P. salmonis and mortality rate in coinfected fish with T. dicentrarchi and P. salmonis. The results obtained in this research will provide animal health information to improve the productive management of salmonids and contribute to the knowledge of the health status of Atlantic salmon in the context of the two main pathogens affecting Chilean aquaculture nowadays.

Jorge Romero recientemente ha adjudicado un proyecto EXCITE2 para realizar un el análisis petrológico de muestras del Complejo Volcánico Tinguiririca a finales de 2024. La investigación consistirá en la investigación con microsonda de electrones de fases minerales y vidrio de la masa molida, además de geoquímica de roca entera y datación radiométrica.

El proyecto tiene como objetivo generar un impacto positivo en la cadena de valor de las cerezas, abarcando tanto las actividades primarias de operación, labores agrícolas y estimaciones, así como las actividades de apoyo para el desarrollo de tecnologías. Se busca mejorar la toma de decisiones y la planificación de la producción al proporcionar una herramienta para generar estimaciones de la producción basadas en los datos intraprediales, en contraposición a planificar únicamente con datos históricos, teniendo en cuenta la variabilidad climática en cada temporada. Esta herramienta tiene como enfoque aumentar la capacidad de planificación del manejo del cultivo, y así proporcionar información precisa a los asesores y servir de puente entre los productores y las exportadoras.

Climate change is driving new interactions between human communities and the environment. The impacts of climate extremes and the progressive patterns of changes in precipitation and temperature are creating new risk dynamics and a high diversity of ecological responses, new interactions between species, and adaptation pathways from society. Climate risk assessment is a crucial tool in current climate change science for developing adaptation and resilience plans and actions. In Chile, the recently enacted climate change law mandates the creation of climate action plans at the communal, basin, and regional levels, requiring climate risk studies as a first step to design adaptation processes, reduce climate risks, and foster resilience at different scales. Over the past decade, extremely unusual drought and large mass movement triggered by intense precipitation has produced important cost and life losses in the Mediterranean and Temperate territories, respectively. The mega-drought in the Mediterranean region has led to extensive tree mortality and forest decay, which is vary geographically diverse and heterogeneous, and remain unassessed in terms of impacts (exposition), vulnerability, and resilience. Years of extreme drought, known as "hyper-droughts," have the potential to profoundly impact biomass dynamics and greenhouse gas emissions. The climatic conditions in the years preceding hyper-droughts play a crucial role in the response and resilience of tree species and forest communities, particularly concerning mortality, decomposition, growth, and regeneration processes. The effects of extreme drought can also trigger environmental changes that increase the risk of other hazards such as forest fires or heatwaves, resulting in areas where the climate risk increases, and consequently the priority for adaptation and resilience planning. In recent decades, massive mass movements, including landslides and debris flows, have become a significant climate hazard in North Patagonia, particularly associated with intense precipitation events. Understanding the frequency of mass movements and their relationship to intense precipitation and other climatic factors is essential for climate change action plans and climate risk assessment. In this context, our proposal aims to develop the first studies using multi-proxy techniques to enhance environmental information for climate risk assessment and integrate it into climate action plans in the Mediterranean and Temperate climate of Chile. First, we will identify and reconstruct the hyper-droughts in the Mediterranean area and pluvial extremes in North Patagonia using historical documents, instrumental and tree-ring records. We will analyze the hyper-drought records to assess the influence of prior climatic variability on forest response and resilience, as well as the drought vulnerability of different Mediterranean forests at high and mid elevations. This assessment will include estimations of structural and functional diversity. Simultaneously, we will reconstruct mass movements using remote sensing, historical documents, and dendrogeomorphology techniques. By examining the frequency of mass movements, we will investigate the role of pluvial extremes and climate variability in their occurrence, especially important for climate risk assessment in the North Patagonian fjord systems, where the extension of the "Carretera Austral" is planned in the near future. This project will generate one of the longest and most precise records of hyper-droughts in the Mediterranean climate and mass movements associated with pluvial events in the North Patagonian Andean fjords of Chile. Additionally, it will provide initial estimations of forest vulnerability to hyper-droughts in Chile. These records are essential environmental information for climate risk assessment and climate action plans mandated by the new climate change legislation in Chile. To ensure effective dissemination, we will communicate our results to the local community through infographics and seminars. We will engage with policy makers, such as Climate Change regional committees, local governments, and environmental risk public services, through meetings, workshops, and policy papers. Furthermore, we will promote the sharing of our results within the scientific community through scientific articles, research visits, international exchanges, and conference participation.

The project covers the following topics: vibrations, multiphase flow, and pipes. All of them are strongly related to Mechanical Engineering and its applications.

Integración de Patentes en Metodología Activa: Desarrollo y Evaluación en un Curso de Ingeniería Mecánica. Supported by the Fondo I Convocatoria de Innovación en Docencia, UOH.

Water vapor is a key component of the hydrological cycle since it is directly involved in the production of precipitation (rain, snow, hail). The transport of water vapor from the tropics (20ºN-20ºS) is fundamental to produce precipitation in midlatitudes (30ºS-50ºS) were local amounts atmospheric moisture are lower than the water column precipitated during a typical storm. This is especially evident during extreme precipitation events, where precipitation accumulation can surpass 2 or 3 times the local atmospheric water vapor available. Extreme precipitation events (EPEs) are expected to increase due to the anthropogenic climate change, and therefore studies addressing the dynamics and forcing factors of these events are increasingly important. Current research examining the relationship between water vapor transport and precipitation in central-southern Chile have advanced in this direction. However, there is a lack of research aiming to understand water-vapor-precipitation process at the mesoscale, where changes in the order of hours associated to convection are important. Even more, despite many storms in central-southern Chile show convective characteristics (e.g. precipitation rates of 10 mm/h or larger), studies looking at the mesoscale processes has not been addressed so far, partially due to the lack of ground-based weather radars. As a result, this research proposal takes the challenge of studying the transport of water vapor and link it with precipitation processes (stratiform and convective) at the mesoscale level in central and southern Chile by using a suit of observations and numerical modeling. To determine the water vapor mechanisms involved in the precipitation processes, the study will employ an atmospheric moisture budget, which involves the balance between a storage term (precipitation in this case) and the linear interaction between local changes, advection, and convergence of water vapor following an air parcel. The budget will be computed using gridded data from a state-of-the-art atmospheric reanalysis (ERA5), numerical simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, and mathematical techniques such as finite differences and the trapezoidal integration rule. In addition, a relatively dense network of GPS deployed in central-southern Chile will provide direct estimates of local changes of the column water vapor, allowing us to perform a thorough validation of both ERA5 and WRF. Precipitation processes will be examined using several sources. The polar orbiting Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite mission provides global swaths of radar reflectivity using a dual-frequency radar (Ku and Ka bands) in a swath-width of 245 km with 5 km resolution at nadir, and vertical beams spaced at 250 m. Along with radar reflectivity, GPM provides estimates of precipitation rates and a classification of the precipitation type, facilitating the identification of precipitation processes. A vertically pointing precipitation radar (Micro Rain Radar, MRR) is currently installed at Universidad de Concepción and will provide time-height sections of radar reflectivity that will complement GPM observations. In addition, a second MRR is planned to be installed in central Chile to provide further meridional context of precipitation processes. Finally, a couple of optical disdrometers and meteorological stations will deliver surface estimates of precipitation at hourly (and higher) rates. In parallel, ERA5 will provide precipitation estimations and classification (stratiform, convective), while WRF will allow to examine precipitation in detail for selected case studies. At the end of this project, it will be clear what component(s) of the moisture budget are dominating precipitation during EPE storms, clarify the relative importance of stratiform and convective precipitation during EPEs, and elucidate if EPEs with strong convective precipitation are forced by atmospheric instabilities, advection of moisture being lifted by the complex terrain, or moisture convergence occurring over the ocean and moving inland. These results will provide the basis for future efforts looking to improve precipitation forecasting tools.