Alberto Zirino

Dr. Alberto Zirino spent some days in our Faculty in order to give some additional lectures about chemical oceanography in the Master of Oceanography. He coincided with Dr. del Giorgio and it was a pleasure to have them in our island. Dr. Zirino is Research Associate in the Marine Biological Research Division of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (from 1996 to present). He is also Lecturer and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Science at the University of San Diego, San Diego, CA. (2000-present), Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemistry, San Diego State University (1977 to present), and Oceanography Consultant to Consorzio Venezia Nuova (the quasi-governmental consortium of Venetian industries charged with safeguarding the Venice Lagoon and the city of Venice, Italy, from1998 to present).

Dr. Zirino

He is member of the Subcommittee on Environmental Analytical Chemistry, and he was member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) from October 1986 to 1994, and member of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (WG 90) of the International Council of Scientific Unions from October 1988-1991. He was the editor of “Mapping Strategies in Chemical Oceanography" (Advances in Chemistry Series) of the American Chemical Society.

From left to right: Magdalena Santana-Casiano, Paul del Giorgio, Javier Arístegui, Santiago Hernández-León, May Gómez, Ted Packard and Alberto Zirino.

Paul del Giorgio

Dr. Paul del Giorgio visited us for some days to give some lectures in the Master of Oceanography. He also delighted us with a very nice talk about the carbon fluxes in freshwater ecosystems. He is currently working on respiration, one of the largest gaps in our understanding of the global carbon cycling in both the aquatic and terrestrial environments. He was embarked on an international collaborative effort to synthesize and analyze the existing information and data on aquatic respiration, which resulted in a book published by Oxford University Press.

Dr. del Giorgio

This project allowed to estimate for the first time global aquatic respiration budget, and also helped to identify gaps in our current understanding of this key aspect of global metabolism. Among the most critical gaps they found were the lack of adequate quantification of the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of aquatic respiration, in oceans, estuaries and lakes; the weak understanding of the links between aquatic respiration, carbon cycling and climate and landscape change; and the almost complete lack of insight into how microbial and planktonic diversity and composition influence aquatic ecosystem metabolism, and how diversity may modulate the response of aquatic systems to changes in organic loading, nutrient enrichment and climate.

Ted Packard, Paul del Giorgio and Javier Arístegui. If you add to this photograph Peter Williams and, perhaps, Tom Ikeda, you will need some oxygen to respire.

Global Sea Level: An enigma

Today an interesting talk by Walter Munk about Global Sea Level. This problem was an important issue in the last conference about climate change organized by the OCDE in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands). Nobel price winner Jan Corfee advised about the problem of sea level increase for coastal cities. Because of this, we received some calls from local journalist requiring information about the problem. For those interested in this effect of global warming, we post an interesting talk by one of the most famous physical oceanographers of the world. Enjoy the lecture.

Rui Caldeira

A few weeks ago, coinciding with the visit of Drs. Cindy Lee and Albert Calbet, we also enjoyed the visit of Dr. Rui Caldeira. He was born in Funchal, Madeira Island and received his B.Sc. in Ocean Sciences in 1995 and a MSc. in Applied Marine Sciences in 1996 from the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. In 2002, he concluded his PhD. entitled “Multidisciplinary oceanographic studies of small islands in the Southern California Bight” from the University of California. He concluded two post-doctoral fellowships at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisboa. In both, he refined his knowledge of numerical models studies of geophysical fluid dynamics. Dr. Caldeira has several published papers, and teaching experience at the Universities of California, New South Wales, Madeira and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Dr. Rui Caldeira

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In front of the dining room of the future Institute of Oceanography. From left to right: Ted Packard, Santiago Hernández-León, Cindy Lee, Iván Alonso, Albert Calbet, Rui Caldeira, Javier Arístegui and Pablo Sangrà (pirates of the biosphere).

The same team but including May Gómez. You can win a lecture next week by Paul del Giorgio if you guess who was the photographer.

The paper today is related to the feeding of dinoflagellates on diatoms in Antarctic waters. This is a key point to those studying the control of microzooplankton on primary production. It is also of interest for those who are going to visit Antarctica next year.

Albert Calbet

Coinciding with the visit by Dr. Cindy Lee, our master students had the pleasure to enjoy the lectures by Dr. Albert Calbet. His research is related to marine plankton ecology, with emphasis on zooplankton, the study of plankton food webs in marine systems and the role of zooplankton in the control of microbial and phytoplanktonic communities, as well as trophic dynamics of plankton, secondary production and zooplankton ecophysiology. His papers on the role of microzooplankton grazing in the pelagic realm are one of the most cited in the field of biological oceanography during the last years.

Dr. Albert Calbet

Albert Calbet and Javier Arístegui

From left to right: Iván Alonso, Cindy Lee, Albert Calbet, Ted Packard, Javier Arístegui and Verónica Benítez (hidden). All of them, waiting to start grazing.

Magdalena Santana-Casiano and Albert Calbet

The paper for today is an interesting work by Gutiérrez-Rodríguez et al. about dilution experiments and the suspicious coupling between phytoplankton growth and grazing rates. This method is promoting a continuous flow of papers testing its usefulness.

Cindy Lee

Dr. Cindy Lee visited our Faculty last week. We had the opportunity to enjoy a very interesting talk about Ocean Acidification and the Role of Particles. She also inaugarated our modest conference room, especially designed to have a better arena to hear the dissertations of our master and doctoral students. Her research is concerned with the distribution and behaviour of biogenic organic compounds in the marine environment, and the role of these compounds in the global carbon cycle. Understanding how organic compounds behave requires knowledge of the biological, geological, and physical processes in the sea. Most biogenic organic compounds are produced in surface waters by phytoplankton as a result of photosynthesis. These compounds can enter the marine food chain by acting as food for bacteria or zooplankton. Organic compounds can also be affected by chemical and physical processes such as adsorption, photochemical degradation, and transport by currents. She is interested in the rates and mechanisms of the transformation reactions which occur as organic compounds are affected by these processes. To study transformation reactions, students identify and measure the amount of individual organic compounds present in the environment with analytical techniques like gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). They also use radiolabeled compounds as tracers to simulate the behavior of naturally occurring compounds. She is interested in organic compounds in all environments, particularly seawater, surface microlayer and sediments of open ocean and coastal areas.

Dr. Cindy Lee

Dr. Cindy Lee at work


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The paper of today is a very recent review by Buesseler and Boyd published in the last number Limnology and Oceanography about net primary production, gravitational flux at the base of the euphotic zone and flux leaving the mixed layer. Compulsory for those working in carbon flux and sediment traps.

Students at sea

Today a video of the last cruise of practical work at sea by the students of the Marine Sciences degree and Master in Oceanography. Enjoy the photographs made by Igor Fernández, Melchor González-Dávila (most of the pictures) and Lidia Nieves. To all of them, thank you for sending the slides.



The paper of today is the last one published by Pascal Lehette and Santiago Hernández-León in Limnology and Oceanography: Methods. It is a calibration exercise to obtain biomass of zooplankton from the body area of the organisms. Because now we can photograph, record or scan a zooplankton sample and we can have the area of every organism, the total biomass and the biomass size spectrum can be obtained converting the body area of every organism into biomass using the relationships given by these two researchers. Therefore, there is no need to destroy the sample to know its biomass (as for dry weight). Now, you can preserve the sample for other purposes (taxonomic studies,...).