Members

Doctoral students

Roberto Reyes Maldonado

- Chironomus sp. “Florida” and its nervous system as model for assessing water toxicity in Puerto Rico.

Co-advisor: Dr. Bruno Marie, UPR

The Chironomidae family can be found in almost any aquatic or semiaquatic habitat. Due to this quality, this insect family has been used to assess disturbances in freshwater ecosystems around the world. This project focuses on developing an assessment tool for Puerto Rico using chironomids as indicators of contamination. Main objectives are to:

1: Establish a method for culturing Chironomus sp. “Florida” and describe its life cycle under laboratory conditions.

2: Describe the nervous system anatomy of Chironomus sp.

3: Validate the nervous system of Chironomus sp. “Florida” as a cellular biomarker for assessing toxicity.