Laura Jiménez is a quantitative ecologist specializing in studying how organisms’ responses to different environmental gradients shape species’ biogeographic patterns and global biodiversity patterns. Her main line of research focuses on developing inferential statistical methods and mathematical models that allow us to characterize the climatic niches of species and predict the effects of climate change on their geographic distributions, as well as monitor changes in the biogeographic patterns of biological communities.

Alejandro Maass is a mathematical engineer interested in the study of dynamic systems and various applications of the concept of entropy and systems biology. He has applied his work to the study of bacterial communities in various environments, such as the Atacama Desert and the ocean, as well as in mining production processes. His research seeks to link the metabolic architecture of bacterial communities and their genetic regulation with the environment in which these communities live, in order to make predictions about it and propagate them over time.

This talk will present the initial results of the KOPAS (Key Ocean Planktonic Areas) project, which seeks to identify and monitor the biological functions of marine plankton using satellite data. The coastal ocean is one of the most dynamic and biologically productive regions on the planet, acting as a critical zone where terrestrial and oceanic processes converge. These regions support a significant portion of global fisheries and coastal economies, and are increasingly threatened by cumulative anthropogenic pressure and climate variability. The Chilean coast, particularly its coastal ocean, is a key ecological region for oceanographic and biological research, as it is influenced by a unique coastal topology characterized by steep gradients of temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen.

The seminar will take place on Friday, November 21^th  at 12:00 PM Chile time (4:00 pm UTC) in the Maryam Mirzakhani Room at the Center for Mathematical Modeling, University of Chile (Beauchef 851, North Building, 6th floor). It will also be live-streamed at this link.