Hard times for marine sciences in Chile

The Department of Oceanography at the University of Concepcion is part of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Oceanography. For 30 years, the department has maintained a Marine Biological Station at Dichato, 40 km from the main campus, and a research vessel, Kay Kay II (20 m long and 47 gross tons). The UdeC-Dichato Unit is considered the centre of excellence for oceanography in Chile. On February 27, 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck the central region of Chile. The worst destruction occurred in the cities of Concepcion, Talca, Talcahuano Harbour and Dichato, close to the epicentre. On the coast, the massive quake was followed by a highly destructive tsunami. Reports of these events have been made recently (Kaiser and Regalado 2010; Madariaga et al. 2010; Regalado 2010). Among Chilean scientiWc institutions and laboratories, the University of Concepion and the marine station were the worst hit, with the latter being almost totally destroyed. Scientists have now evaluated the magnitude of the loss. Major damage and destruction has aVected infrastructure (the vessel Kay Kay II, Marine Biological Station at Dichato, and main campus in Concepcion), educational materials, valuable laboratory equipment and material, collections of scientiWc journals, archives, and irreplaceable samples. Loss estimates are around 7.5 million dollars US at UdeC-Dichato. For the entire country, the loss is about 200 million dollars US to research facilities and equipment. The conclusion is that marine sciences and oceanography in Chile now face a major setback. Recovery of normal scientiWc and educational activities relies Wrst on national political decisions. Scientists UniWed for the Reconstruction of Chile, a lobbying group, will send a list of seven recommendations to Chile’s minister of education to get research back to normal. The list includes additional grants for students whose projects are on hold and an emergency $90 million line of credit so researchers can replace damaged equipment. In practice, the Chilean government is focused on restoring public infrastructure and helping the population, meaning that marine sciences might not be a high priority. In the past 10 years, Chilean oceanographers established the Centre for Oceanographic Research in the eastern South PaciWc (COPAS, Lange and Ulloa 2003), whose research activity has been primarily based at the Marine Biology Station at Dichato, and have achieved signiWcant progress in understanding the Humboldt current system and the Oxygen Minimum Zone System (Morales and Lange 2004; Escribano and Schneider 2007; Ulloa and Pantoja 2009). The COPAS Centre (www.copas.cl) is devoted to advanced basic scientiWc research on the circulation, biogeochemical cycling, ecology, and paleoceanography of the eastern South PaciWc Ocean. The objectives are to understand climate and ocean variability (present and past) and the impact on marine ecosystems and regional productivity. Multiand interdisciplinary research covers diverse temporal and spatial scales and is based on observations, experiments, retrospective analysis, and modelling. This is done through six research programmes. Chile is considered a leader in marine sciences among South American countries. For instance, one of the major contributions of the COPAS Centre was the ongoing time series study oV Concepcion, Communicated by U. Sommer.