PAULINA CONTRERAS is a marine biology student. The main goal of her dissertation research is to establish how much is the contribution of mixotrophs to the nanophytoplankton community in highly productive coastal regions. She is also interested in how the environmental factors (i.e. light regime and nutrient concentrations) may determine the trophic status of mixotrophic organisms, from phototrophy to heterotrophy. Most field and experimental activities will be developed during the field campaigns of the FONDECYT PROJECT 1060709 in Dichato Bay and Itata River mouth. Laboratory Skills - Microbial analysis under inverted and epifluorescence microscopy. - Preparation of fluorescent labelled bacteria (FLB) and algae (FLA). - Bacterivory estimations with FLB

Paulina Contreras E-mail: pcontrer@udec.cl Phone: (56) (41) 2203396