Andrea Natalia Alvarez is currently a Ph.D. fellow at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), working in the Marine Zooplankton Laboratory under the Department of Biodiversity and Experimental Biology (DBBE) and the Institute of Biodiversity and Applied Experimental Biology (IBBEA, CONICET). Her doctoral research focuses on the early larval stages of Patagonotothen spp., a genus of notothenioid fishes native to southern South America.
Her work involves analyzing larval fish diets in relation to spatial distribution, developmental stage, and environmental variables, combining morphological and molecular approaches to identify prey items. She also studies zooplankton community composition in the context of trophic dynamics. On this expedition, Natalia contributes her expertise in zooplankton and ichthyoplankton identification, supporting the analysis of pelagic communities associated with cold seeps and collaborating on the sampling of fish larvae.
She has presented her work at multiple national conferences and symposia and is first author of a peer-reviewed article on Patagonian zooplankton communities.
Natalia holds a Licentiate in Biological Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has participated in several research cruises aboard the ARA Austral and other vessels, and is excited to contribute to this multidisciplinary effort exploring life in extreme deep-sea ecosystems.
Cruises:
