May 5, 2026
Based on research funded by the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), doctoral students at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile are gathering evidence, across complementary scales, on how microbiological and evolutionary processes can influence the global climate system.
Carolina Paz Márquez Gajardo, from PhD in Biological Sciences, Major in Ecology, and Ignacio Felipe Carlos Gutiérrez Corts, from PhD in Biological Sciences, Major in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, developed their theses in this extreme environment, which offers unique conditions for observing phenomena and generating data with a level of resolution that is difficult to replicate in other research settings.
Where science adapts to the environment
In the Antarctic, the production of scientific knowledge is strongly shaped by extreme climate, operational constraints, and the particularity of the environment.
In this context, both students have moved their research from the laboratory to the field, developing their studies under highly demanding real-world conditions, thanks to funding from the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), which was awarded in 2025 through a nationwide competitive grant program aimed at strengthening scientific research in Chile and promoting the development of projects in the Antarctic region.
This Benefit offer for PhD projects provides funding up to $7.000.000 annually for field studies and $6.000.00 for laboratory-based projects (analytical or experimental work conducted outside the field), as well as logistical support and access to scientific expeditions—conditions that enable research in a highly complex environment.
Thanks to this initiative, field research not only becomes viable but also helps generate key evidence for understanding fundamental dynamics on a global scale.
The microscopic life in the Antarctic and its impact
Although Antarctica may appear stable on a macroscopic scale, processes fundamental to the planet’s functioning occur at the microscopic level.
This is the focus of Ignacio Gutiérrez’s research, which examines how microbial communities living in soil (edaphic) and within rocks (endolithic) on the Western Antarctic Peninsula respond to climate change. In simple terms, his work seeks to understand how environmental conditions will affect both the diversity and functionality of these microscopic ecosystems.
“My job helps to show how the anthropogenic effects even reach the most pristine environments on Earth. Although Antarctica is often perceived as a desolate place due to the scarcity of plants and animal life, it is actually an ecosystem dominated by microorganisms that we are gradually altering. Understanding these impacts is vital for predicting ecological consequences on a global scale,” he explained.
Understanding these transformations is essential, given the role that microorganisms play in ecological balances and key processes within the Earth system. In this context, their work has required expanding the sampling scope, accessing remote areas, and overcoming significant logistical and technical challenges.
In this context, access to funding and logistical support is crucial for sustaining this type of field research.
“INACH’s support has been a cornerstone of my doctoral research. Beyond providing the crucial funding needed to carry out the project, it also allowed me to expand my sampling range significantly. Being able to participate in the ECA 62 expedition was key to collecting samples across a wide latitudinal range, which is essential for achieving the objectives of my thesis,” he explained.
Evolution in the extreme
At the same time, Carolina Márquez’s research takes a different approach: she analyzes how historical, tectonic, and climatic processes have shaped the genetic diversity, population structure, and evolutionary history of species, particularly sea urchins of the genus Abatus, which are endemic to the Southern Ocean.
Through a comparative analysis of populations from Antarctica, Patagonia, and sub-Antarctic regions such as the Kerguelen Islands, his work examines how different environments have shaped the genetic structure and adaptive processes of these species.
One of the main contributions of his research has been the development of methodologies for genomic studies in non-model species—that is, organisms that have been little studied.
“Genomics allows us to study an organism’s entire DNA, and for this purpose, a reference genome is generally used, which functions as a ‘map’ for analyzing genetic information. However, such tools do not exist for hedgehogs of the genus Abatus, so it has been necessary to start building one from scratch—a process I am currently engaged in,” she noted.
His research is conducted within a context directly shaped by the specific characteristics of the environment in which it takes place.
“Conditions can change rapidly, and factors such as the weather often prevent us from reaching sampling sites. Even the presence of wildlife, such as leopard seals, can limit our diving work. All of this means constantly adapting and making decisions in situations that change from day to day,” she emphasized.
Given these challenges, INACH funding has been crucial to his research.
“The support provided by INACH has been essential for the development of my project, as it enabled a month of fieldwork at the Professor Julio Escudero Station, located on King George Island in Antarctica. This funding made it possible to collect samples under natural conditions, a key aspect for addressing the study’s objectives from a genomic perspective,” she noted.
In this context, her research helps expand our understanding of how life evolves in one of the most challenging environments on the planet: the Southern Ocean. Through genomics—that is, the study of the entire genome—he seeks to offer a new perspective on marine invertebrates. This group remains largely unexplored but is essential to understanding the functioning and evolution of these ecosystems.
From Antarctica to Global Questions
Although they start from different scales—the microbial and the genomic—both research projects converge on a single point: the need to generate knowledge and evidence from extreme systems to understand global processes.
It is at this intersection—between the microscopic, the evolutionary, and the climatic—that the contribution of these doctoral candidates lies: producing evidence from the extremes to understand a system that, though global, begins to take shape at its margins.
Antarctica functions, in this sense, as one of the planet’s great natural laboratories: an environment where small environmental variations allow us to observe and anticipate larger-scale transformations, and where different forms of life provide key insights into the dynamics of the global climate system and its interactions with biological and geological processes.