This line explores the impact of environmental pressures on biodiversity, health, and human development. Its scope ranges from the management of omics science to mathematical models that simulate the effects of environmental transitions.
The group pursues multiple lines that combine applied research with theoretical mathematical developments for climate and biodiversity modeling. Applied work will focus on modeling mathematically the metabolic and regulatory mechanisms of microbial communities facing environmental changes, considering the CEODOS Chile ocean expedition and mining tailings and leaching systems as case studies. Methodologically, the developed tools will be transferable to other niches. In the ocean realm, the group will finalize a monitoring tool to define Key Ocean Planktonic Areas via remote sensing to detect plankton functional properties and will expand its use to other regions (e.g., Costa Rica). The group will also assist in organizing the TARA Ocean Foundation’s Patagonia–Antarctic Expedition (2028–2029) and conduct the subsequent analysis of its results. The biomining agenda will integrate fundamental research with technology transfer to advance climate-resilient, low-carbon mining. The group will study extremophilic microbial communities in tailings and leaching systems, using regulatory and community-scale metabolic modeling to understand functional stability and climate adaptation. These insights will enable the rational design of microbial consortia and predictive platforms for bioleaching, critical metal recovery and tailings stabilization, with reduced water, energy and carbon footprint.
The group will continue its research on developing a Chilean index of urban resilience to climate change, with community-level resolution and sectoral disaggregation, based on measurable indicators and a systemic perspective. At the same time, the group plans to extend a conceptual differential equation methodology to analyze the impact of suitable adaptation policies on health for vulnerable populations facing climate change, represented by increasingly frequent and intense heat island effects, climate extremes and urban pollution.
In a more theoretical direction, the group will continue its analysis of biodiversity from a stochastic viewpoint, expanding it to include patterns in species and gene-family diversity within genomes, as well as concepts (e.g., fitness) and processes (e.g., niche construction) within a stochastic framework. The group will also continue its analysis of the transgression of Earth System Boundaries, focusing on biodiversity boundaries and modeling tipping points in the Earth System (e.g., the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation). In climate change, the group will explore land-use evolution models based on satellite data, combined with PDEs and cellular automata.