Publications by authors named "Victor Aguilera"

The use of pyrethroids in aquaculture has been an important component of achieving a thriving salmon farming industry in Chile. While the residual presence of such substances is known to depend on environmental conditions, most ecotoxicological studies to date have not considered environmental context. Here, we conducted oceanographic monitoring combined with experiments aiming to estimate the effects of two pyrethroids on the feeding rates of larvae of farmed mussels, Mytilus chilensis.

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The loss of biodiversity in marine populations is one of the consequences of the increased events of extreme environmental conditions in the oceans, which can condition the persistence of populations to future scenarios of climate change. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to explore and monitor the genetic diversity of natural populations. In the Southeast Pacific Ocean (SEPO), specifically on the coast of Chile, the presence of the copepod Acartia tonsa has been indicated solely using morphological evidence, due to the absence of genetic information.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers collected and studied Pseudo-nitzschia species from coastal waters of central Chile and nearby areas, identifying 123 strains across 11 species through genetic and structural analysis.
  • The study revealed significant genetic and structural diversity among the species, highlighting the presence of new and undescribed species, as well as morphological variants with unclear species boundaries.
  • Domoic acid, a harmful toxin, was found in 18 out of 82 tested strains, with varying levels of toxicity among different species, indicating a need for further monitoring and research in these waters.
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Objective: Critical care air transport has played an important role during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The goal of this article is to analyze results and lessons learned from the evacuation of the first 100 COVID-19 patients transported between medical facilities in Chile.

Methods: We reviewed prospective data of patients who were referred for air transport between March 27, 2020, and July 9, 2020.

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Linking pH/pCO natural variation to phenotypic traits and performance of foundational species provides essential information for assessing and predicting the impact of ocean acidification (OA) on marine ecosystems. Yet, evidence of such linkage for copepods, the most abundant metazoans in the oceans, remains scarce, particularly for naturally corrosive Eastern Boundary Upwelling systems (EBUs). This study assessed the relationship between pH levels and traits (body and egg size) and performance (ingestion rate (IR) and egg reproduction rate (EPR)) of the numerically dominant neritic copepod Acartia tonsa, in a year-round upwelling system of the northern (23° S) Humboldt EBUs.

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Metal-rich sediments have the potential to impair life in freshwater streams and rivers and, thereby, to inhibit recovery of ecological conditions after any remediation of mine water discharges. Sediments remain metal-rich over long time periods and have long-term potential ecotoxicological interactions with local biota, unless the sediments themselves are physically removed or replaced by less metal-rich sediment. Laboratory-derived environmental quality standards are difficult to apply to the field situation, as many complicating factors exist in the real world.

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Climate change is expected to exacerbate upwelling intensity and natural acidification in Eastern Boundaries Upwelling Systems (EBUS). Conducted between January-September 2015 in a nearshore site of the northern Humboldt Current System directly exposed to year-round upwelling episodes, this study was aimed at assessing the relationship between upwelling mediated pH-changes and functional traits of the numerically dominant planktonic copepod-grazer Acartia tonsa (Copepoda). Environmental temperature, salinity, oxygen, pH, alkalinity, chlorophyll-a (Chl), copepod adult size, egg production (EP), and egg size and growth were assessed through 28 random oceanographic surveys.

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Ocean warming and acidification are general consequences of rising atmospheric CO concentrations. In addition to future predictions, highly productive systems such as the Humboldt Current System are characterized by important variations in both temperature and pCO level, but how these physical-chemical ocean changes might influence the transmission and survival of parasites has not been assessed. This study experimentally evaluated the effects of temperature (14, 18 and 25 °C) and the combined effects of temperature (∼15 and 20 °C) and pCO level (∼500 and 1400 microatmospheres (µatm) on the emergence and survival of two species of marine trematodes-Echinostomatidae gen.

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Global stressors, such as ocean acidification, constitute a rapidly emerging and significant problem for marine organisms, ecosystem functioning and services. The coastal ecosystems of the Humboldt Current System (HCS) off Chile harbour a broad physical-chemical latitudinal and temporal gradient with considerable patchiness in local oceanographic conditions. This heterogeneity may, in turn, modulate the specific tolerances of organisms to climate stress in species with populations distributed along this environmental gradient.

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Seasonal cohorts of the large-sized copepod Calanoides patagoniensis allowed testing the relative ability of this species to exploit food resources that prevail during winter time in southern upwelling ecosystems of the Humboldt Current. This was achieved by considering a local winter flagellate assemblage (WFA), Thalassiosira rotula isolated from the local spring phytoplankton and a laboratory culture of Prorocentrum minimum, as food offers in consecutive 96 h experiments. Ingestion rates (IR) varied between 7 and 14 μg C f(-1) d(-1), egg production reached a peak of 70 eggs while egg production rates (EPR) varied between 27 ± 6 and 31 ± 4 eggs f(-1) d(-1).

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This study evaluated the impact of medium-term exposure to elevated pCO(2) levels (750-1200 ppm) on the physiological processes of juvenile Mytilus chilensis mussels over a period of 70 d in a mesocosm system. Three equilibration tanks filled with filtered seawater were adjusted to three pCO(2) levels: ~380 (control), ~750 and ~1200 ppm by bubbling air or an air-CO(2) mixture through the water. For the control, atmospheric air (with aprox.

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