 |    |
                    |
Universidad Arturo Prat (UNAP)
The Universidad Arturo Prat was established on the basis of the integration of the regional units of the Universidad de Chile, according to the Chilean University Law of March 1981. Financial support is given by the Chilean State as well as own income. The Universidad is organised on the basis of Departments and incorporates 13 academic unities to develop teaching and investigation including all aspects of the economical activities of the region and the country, such as mining, pedagogics, commerce, agriculture, sciences and fishery. All of these have a pluralist and cosmopolitan tendency. Resulting is a wide diversity of students. The university even opens its doors to the community with different programmes of activities to integrate the public.
The Department of Marine Sciences of the UNAP was created in 1982 and hosts 23 professors. It has 138 undergraduate students, and its main areas of knowledge are biology, fishing, and aquaculture. The departments mission is to train professionals in the area of marine sciences who are capable of realizing and solving problems through technical knowledge.
The departments research lines are ecology, systematic biology, biodiversity, El Niņo and the Southern Oscillation, fishery, environmental resources, production process optimization, cultivation alternatives, and environmental impact.
The Benthic Ecosystem working group has long experience in ecological research on coastal benthic and fish communities (Prof. R. Soto, Prof. W. Sielfeld). The Coordinator started work on the fishes of the Humboldt Current upwelling system in 1990 and has continued this research up to the present day.
Research activities focus on the adaptational capacity of the species, the importance of the environmental factors on the regulation of populations, and especially on the effect on the benthic and pelagic fisheries of Northern Chile, and its post El Niņo recovery response. The laboratories are well equipped, an aquarium system and temperature controlled laboratories are available for animal maintenance and incubations under various environmental conditions.
Homepage: |
