Caren Vega Retter

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Chile

How organisms adapt to unfavorable environmental conditions by means of plasticity or selection of favorable genetic variants is a central issue in evolutionary biology. In the Maipo River basin, the fish Basilichthys microlepidotus inhabits polluted and non-polluted areas. Previous studies have suggested that directional selection drives genomic d...

Abstract Human activity has caused a deterioration in the health and population size of riverine species; thus, public policies have been implemented to mitigate the anthropogenic impacts of water use, watercourse transformation, and pollution. We studied the Maipo River Basin, one of the most polluted with untreated wastewater in Chile, for a peri...

Pollution and its effects have been of major concern in recent decades. Many strategies and markers have been developed to assess their effects on biota. Cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes have received significant attention in this context because of their relationship with detoxification and activation of exogenous compounds. While their expression has...

The Maipo River catchment is one of Chile’s most polluted basins. In recent decades, discharges of untreated sewage and organic matter have caused eutrophication and water quality degradation. We employed the indigenous silverfish species Basilichthys microlepidotus as a model organism to investigate the process of adaptation and selection on genes...

Pollution is a major global concern affecting biodiversity, particularly of freshwater species. Populations have developed mechanisms to deal with pollution, such as the chemical defensome, which is a set of genes involved in maintaining internal stability. Pollution significantly affects the Maipo River basin in Chile. This area is home to the end...

Cite this: Briones-Alburquenque MP et al. (2025) Pollution effects on diversity and content of the stable isotope 15 N in macroinvertebrates: a study of the impacts on the functional groups from the Maipo River, Chile. Marine and Freshwater Research 76, MF24234. ABSTRACT Context. Anthropogenic activities producing nitrogen have affected freshwater...

Understanding the connectivity among populations of benthic marine organisms is essential for defining the stocks of commercially fished species. Such information allows for better management of commercial species’ populations. The cephalopod Octopus mimus Gould, 1852 is an economically important species exploited by artisanal fishing in northern C...

Pollution, driven by land use, industrial operations, and urban growth, significantly affects biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems. Studies have shown how freshwater organisms adapt to pollution, observing mechanisms like directional selection, balancing selection, and introgression. They have focused on genetic changes in populations exposed to p...

The effects of habitat degradation remain not fully understood. A recent study reported low effects of habitat degradation on plant genetic diversity but indicates that reduction in habitat quality could impact it as well as gene flow indirectly via ecological interactions. Selective logging is a way of habitat degradation, but studies examining it...

Trace elements in aquatic ecosystems are considered as major pollutants due to their environmental persistence, toxicity and ability to be incorporated into food webs. Contaminated sediments represent a threat to benthic macroinvertebrates which in turn expose high trophic organisms to hazardous trace elements, therefore metals accumulated in benth...

Population connectivity has a fundamental role in metapopulation dynamics with important implications for population persistence in space and time. Oceanic islands, such as Easter Island (EI) and the Salas & Gómez Island (SG), are ideal for the study of population connect-ivity because they are separated by 415 km and isolated from other islands in...

Elucidating the processes responsible for maintaining the population connectivity of marine benthic species mediated by larval dispersal remains a fundamental question in marine ecology and fishery management. Understanding these processes becomes particularly important in areas with a biogeographic break and unidirectional water movement along the...

Freshwater ecosystems are among those most affected by human activity. Constructing artificial reservoirs can change freshwater biodiversity, thereby impacting genetic diversity (GD), which is crucial to population‐level adaptation. The Maipo River basin, inhabited by the endemic silverside Basilichthys microlepidotus, is one of Chile's most impact...

Genetic differentiation depends on ecological and evolutionary processes that operate at different spatial and temporal scales. While the geographical context is likely to determine large‐scale genetic variation patterns, habitat disturbance events will probably influence small‐scale genetic diversity and gene flow patterns. Therefore, the genetic...

• Population connectivity has a fundamental role in metapopulation dynamics, with important implications in conservation. Easter Island (EI) and Salas y Gómez Island (SG) in the Pacific Ocean are ideal for the study of population connectivity because they are separated by 415 km and isolated from other islands in the Pacific Ocean by >2,000 km. • C...

Identifying natural selection in wild plant populations is a challenging task, as the reliability of selection coefficients depends, among other factors, on the critical assumption of data independence. While rarely examined, selection coefficients may be influenced by the spatial and genetic dependence among plants, which violates the independence...

Freely (and legally) available here: https://rdcu.be/cdwWf ------------------------------------------------------------ Science writing is a complex rhetorical activity that enhances disciplinary participation in university education and requires learner-centered, inquiry-based explicit instruction. This study aimed to determine the effects of tea...

1.- The presence of a dam disturbs river flow, which in turn directly affects the communities and evolutionary potential of riverine species. To detect the ecological effects of a dam on genetic diversity, genetic structure, and their progress in time, two riverine fishes living upstream and downstream of an irrigation reservoir were studied at two...

We studied the adsorption-desorption of Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn in Maipo river basin, one of the most perturbed rivers in Chile, and thus determined its tolerance to the addition of these metals into the sediments and the possibility of transferring the metals from the sediments to the water column. Sediments were sampled from six sites from the river ba...

Alchisme grossa is a treehopper species showing maternal care until at least the third nymphal instar. A secondary female treehopper has frequently been observed near a family (primary female guarding its egg clutch). Intraspecific brood parasitism, communal breeding or alloparental care may be suggested as possible mechanisms to explain secondary...

Habitat transformation due to the replacement of native forests by exotic tree plantations is a strong biodiversity loss driver. However, the effects on ecological and evolutionary processes remain little understood. We used a highly specialized tripartite mutualistic system, composed of a mistletoe, its pollinator and its seed disperser, to study...

To understand the role of gene expression in adaptive variation, it is necessary to examine expression variation in an ecological context. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) is considered the most accurate and reliable technique to measure gene expression and to validate the data obtained by RNA-seq; however, accurate normalization is crucial. In Ch...

Land use change is one of the most important anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity loss. Nevertheless, the ecological and evolutionary consequences of habitat transformation remain less understood than those from habitat fragmentation. Transformed habitats are structurally simpler, altering species composition and their ecological interactions, pot...

Understanding patterns of marine connectivity in oceanic islands is a fundamental element for conservation and management of fished species. In the present study, the level of connectivity of the endemic lobster Panulirus pascuensis Reed, 1954 from remote islands in the southern Pacific Ocean was estimated, focusing on the Motu Motiro Hiva Marine P...

In this study, we analyze the concentration of ten metals in two freshwater fish—the benthic catfish Trichomycterus areolatus and the limnetic silverside Basilichthys microlepidotus—in order to detect possible accumulation differences related to fish habitat (benthic or pelagic), tissue type (gill, liver and muscle), and the river of origin (four d...

The study of species in their native geographic ranges is key to understanding how human activity has influenced spatial fragmentation or species homogenization. The Argentinian silverside Odontesthes bonariensis, of interest for aquiculture and sport fishing, is a relevant subject of study. The species has been introduced in a number of countries...

The spiny lobster Panulirus pascuensis stands out among the endemic species of Easter Island, due to its cultural and economic importance. A total of 16 microsatellite loci were characterized in 18 individuals, 9 of which were polymorphic. The mean number of alleles per locus was 3.44 (2-6) and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.11 to 0.93....

Easter Island possess a unique marine biodiversity. Monetaria caputdraconis is important among these species due to its cultural and economic importance for the islanders. For this reason, a total of 16 microsatellite loci were characterized for this species. The mean number of alleles per locus in the 76 studied individuals was 11.25 (2-20 alleles...

Abstract The complete sequence of the mitochondrial genome for the Chilean silverside Basilichthys microlepidotus is reported for the first time. The entire mitochondrial genome was 16,544 bp in length (GenBank accession no. KM245937); gene composition and arrangement was conformed to that reported for most fishes and contained the typical structur...

Tristerix corymbosus (Loranthaceae) is a keystone mistletoe from the South American temperate rainforests. As most mistletoes, T. corymbosus relies on biotic pollination and seed dispersal, which may cause population structure. For a better understanding of its ecology, we isolated and characterized ten polymorphic microsatellite loci for this spec...

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New microsatellite loci were characterized for the rudderfish, Kyphosus elegans (Peters, 1869), in Easter Island, Chile. Data were obtained by sequencing in a 454 GS Junior system (Roche). The 1/4 run provided 3,460 fragments with repeat motifs, sixteen were amplified for 37 samples. The mean number of alleles per locus for these samples was 9.3 (3...

Currently environmental pollution is one of the most important factors affecting natural populations and acting as a strong selective pressure. Therefore, identifying genes and their alleles implied in population survival within contaminated areas is a relevant issue. In this context, freshwater systems are likely among those that have been most im...

Genetic effects of living in a highly polluted environment: the case of the silverside Basilichthys microlepidotus (Jenyns) (Teleostei: atherinopsidae) in the Maipo River basin, central Chile Abstract Freshwater systems are one of the environ-ments most impacted by human activity, with pollution being a highly important factor. In Chile, several ri...

Daphnia exilis is a halophylic species that was recently found in Chile, distant from its natural range. In this study, we analyze the osmoregulatory and life-history responses to salinity exhibited by Daphnia exilis, as a first step towards understanding the ecology of this exotic species whose invasion potential has been related to its ability to...

a b s t r a c t 1. Nestedness has been recognized as a characteristic pattern of community organization. In a nested metacommunity, species-poor sites are proper subsets of relatively richer sites, implying that the conservation of many poor habitats can be ineffective. 2. Here we compiled the last 30 years of published limnological research on Chi...

1. Here, we report morphological and life-historical changes in the cladoceran Daphnia ambigua in response to chemical cues released by the predatory water mite Piona chilensis. Both species are common inhabitants of southern temperate lakes. 2. We found significant differences in adult body size at first, second and third reproduction. Also, indiv...

During the last decades, limnological studies on Chilean systems have contributed to know the species composition and main environmental variables of many water bodies distributed over a wide latitudinal interval, from 18º to 53º S. However, we still lack of a comprehensive view about the structure and functioning of regional freshwaters. In this w...