A key species at risk

 

The research, recently published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, was led by Loretto Contreras, a researcher at the SECOS Institute, CAPES, and a professor at Andrés Bello University, and a group of researchers from the Millennium Institute of Coastal Socio-Ecology (SECOS) and various universities. This research was conducted at two sites in the central region of the country with contrasting conditions: Horcón, a bay in the Puchuncaví commune, subject to high levels of pollution, and Quintay, considered to have low impact and pollution.

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Spores were collected at both sites in spring 2023 and fall 2024, with the aim of evaluating the species' reproductive effort and monitoring its development for 28 days under controlled culture conditions. Throughout this period, key variables were recorded to compare the populations' performance in different environments and seasons.

 

The results demonstrate that, while the algae's reproduction tends to peak in autumn, a natural pattern for the species, this window of success is severely impacted by pollution, generating a "bottleneck" effect that decimates populations at their most vulnerable stages.

 

Thus, in impacted areas like Horcón, the most sensitive stages of the algae's life cycle are seriously affected, reducing its regeneration and persistence over time, thus undermining the ability of this vital species to renew its populations. In this regard, Loretto Contreras explains that "in contaminated sites like Horcón, we observe problems in the early reproductive stages: lower gametophyte survival, imbalances in the sex ratio, and sporophyte necrosis. Although fertility sometimes appears to be high, it is actually an artificial effect resulting from the mortality of many individuals."