Depending on the Playa Union Foundation, EFPU is an investigation centre aiming to study the effect of solar radiation and other variables linked to global change, on different living beings, principally aquatics.
EFPU gives special importance to the preparation of human resources, helping the formation of young professionals in the area of Photobiology, by means of internships and guidance of graduate and post-graduate students.
EFPU has been declared of Municipal and Provincial interest, given the importance of its investigations and formation of human resources.
Objectives
Depending on the Playa Union Foundation, EFPU is an investigation centre aiming to study the effect of solar radiation on aquatic organisms, to understand the potential effects of global change on productivity and biodiversity, and the trophic producers-consumers relations. Even though the bulk of studies are carried on the Patagonian coasts, other investigations are made on systems of photobiological special interest: tropical, ecosystems, high-altitude lakes, sink holes, etc.
Directors
Director (ad honorem)
Dr. Macarena S. Valiñas
Associate Researcher – CONICET
Dr. in Biological Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2010
Vice-Director (ad honorem)
Dr. E. Walter Helbling
Superior Researcher – CONICET
Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO-UCSD), USA,1993