Dharma Andrea Reyes Macaya

“Once upon a time, a little girl played at her hometown beach with the sea organisms, rocks and sediments, admiring the beauty of the ocean.”

I am Bio­lo­gist by trai­ning from Chi­le and cur­rent­ly a PhD stu­dent in MARUM. Du­ring the ear­ly ye­ars of my ca­re­er, I have stu­di­ed the eco­lo­gy of some mi­cro­or­ga­nisms that are cal­led Ra­dio­la­ria and Fo­ra­mi­ni­fe­ra. Du­ring the last year of my un­der­gra­dua­te ca­re­er and my mas­ter stu­dies, I was fa­sci­na­ted by the oce­an cir­cu­la­ti­on, cli­ma­te chan­ge, che­mis­try of the sea­wa­ter and mi­cro­paleon­to­lo­gy. So far, I have stu­di­ed past oce­an wa­ter mass dis­tri­bu­ti­ons in the South East and Equa­to­ri­al Pa­ci­fic. This sta­ge of my life opened in my heart a passion without precedents and gave me the possibility to work with nica people that already were my mentors, colleaguea and friends.

Cur­rent­ly, my main re­se­arch in­te­rest is try­ing to un­der­stand past chan­ges in the dis­tri­bu­ti­on and hy­dro­lo­gic cha­rac­te­ris­tics of the wa­ter mass that feeds the South East Pa­ci­fic Oxy­gen Mi­ni­mum Zone. This to­pic is a litt­le part of a big line of re­se­arch that ge­ne­ra­ti­ons of re­se­ar­chers have de­ve­l­o­ped for the last ye­ars around the world, trying to un­der­stand chan­ges in the oce­an de­oxy­ge­na­ti­on (re­fers to the loss of oxy­gen from the oce­an due to cli­ma­te chan­ge) du­ring the past.

For years the scientific community has been realizing that informing and involving the community in science is a big issue for understanding, valorizing and conserving the environment. The project "Once Upon a Time" is an excellent platform to do science and communication. The intercultural perspective and the idea to incorporate art and literature to try to communicate science are amazing.