Claudio Cortes
Universidad Católica del Norte
Facultad de Ciencias del Mar
Larrondo 1281
Casilla 117
Email: cfrangelico13@yahoo.es

My name is Claudio Cortes Arancibia, I am student of pregrado of Biology Marina and I am carrying out my thesis project, in: "The Effects of the Ammonium and the Salinity on the development of embryos of Lessonia nigrescens Bory (Phaeophyta, Laminariales)". The objective of this study is to observe and to quantify the answer of the microscopic phases from Lessonia nigrescens subjected to these two components. The concentrations to examine will be selected from an area of discharge of waters served in the area intermareal of the sector of the Pampilla in Coquimbo, Chile. Where is registers a significant reduction in the biomass of this seaweeds. This decrease could be being affected by a decrease in the recruitment, due to the deleterious effects of a high ammonium concentration and to the formation of a saline gradient, have more than enough microscopic stadiums of the alga. The different ammonium concentrations and salinity will be testeadas by means of cultivations in Petri dishes under laboratory conditions for a period of 24 days, quantifying: settlement, germination and viability of the spores, proportion and gametophytes fertility and finally sporophytes production.
Because this macroalga is of economic importance, used in the alginates obtaining and also an important organism community structure, any contribution on the potential effects of pollutants evacuated to the marine environment is of supreme importance, besides carrying out a possible approach for potentials toxicity tests, due to its wide distribution and when being a sessile organism. In other latitudes the microscopic phases of the alga are used Macrocystis pyrifera (belonging to the same family; Lessoniaceae), in tests of quality of residual waters developed by investigators of the Institute of Marine Sciences of the University of California.