Persistent Digital Identifiers (UIDs)
ORCID :
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7362-3626
ResearcherID :
F-3332-2016
Job Type
Teaching/Education
Research
Subject Area
Biological Oceanography, Marine Ecology
Fisheries, Aquaculture
Marine Biotechnology, Marine Products
Activities
Since August 2016 I started working in Universidad Industrial de Santander where I teach animal physiology, phylogeography, and marine biology to undergraduate students. In the graduate school I teach Next Generation Sequencing data analyses and soon I will be teaching an Ichthyology course. My research is broad. I use molecular markers and population genetics methods to understand the historical and modern factors that modulate the demographic history and connectivity among populations. In my doctoral dissertation I worked with Pollicipes elegans, a marine barnacle from the Eastern Tropical Pacific. This study helped to identify populations rich and poor in genetic diversity. With bayesian simulations of demographic history I was able to disentangle how climate change shaped the history of populations. Pollicipes elegans is being harvested in Peru to supply European market demands of Pollicipes pollicipes, a congeneric species that is currently over harvested in Spain. By studying the evolutionary and ecological factors affecting the effective size of populations of marine species I aim to improve the decision making process in the management of marine resources. A second theme of my research is animal physiology and species diversity. I am currently in charge of the ichthyology collection of the Natural History Museum of the Universidad Industrial de Santander. With this valuable resource I am evaluating species distribution range, population connectivity, species delimitation and population expansion and contraction history.
Sea regions of study
Caribbean Sea
South Pacific Ocean
Skills
Molecular methods (PCR, electrophoresis)
Bioinformatics (Transcriptome, Genomics, Variant Calling, etc.)
Demographic modeling (Bayesian, Likelihood, DADI)
Species delimitation with molecular data (bpp, Barcode GAP analyses, etc.)
Population genetics (Structure, gene flow, diversity, etc.)
Larval physiology (respirometry, larval rearing, LT50)
Working language(s)
English Spanish Portuguese
Comment(s)
I started my research experience in Chile with marker assisted selection to improve production of the green abalone Halliotis discus hannai, a marine gastropod with high demand in Japan. Later I developed microsatellite markers to study the marine crustaceans Limnoria chilensis and Excirolana hirsuticauda to evaluate population connectivity across populations in Chile. Later I did my PhD in Clemson University with a marine barnacle Pollicipes elegans from Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Peru. Now I am working in the development of methods to describe historical and ecological factors that shape the effective population size of aquatic species.
