The Galician rías (NW Iberia, Spain) are coastal embayments at the northern boundary of the Canary Current upwelling system. Their favourable conditions for phytoplankton growth turn them into a suitable area for the development of aquaculture activities and a site of most of the national shellfish production. Phytoplankton blooms, a natural phenomenon inside the rías, under certain conditions eventually lead to seawater discolourations (colloquially known as "red tides"). Because of their transient nature, available records derive mainly from opportunistic samplings or casual observations, and are scattered in the literature. As a rule of thumb, red tides in the NW Iberian Peninsula are of non-toxic nature and are not systematically monitored. However, in recent years striking exceptions such as those of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum, a producer of paralytic shellfish toxins, have been registered. The present study goes through a historical overview of red tides in the Galician rías, describing their colouring, responsible organisms, seasonal and geographical occurrence, and their association with other features (harmful algal blooms, biotoxins and shellfish harvesting closures, bioluminescence, etc.), ending with social challenges and proposals for improving the monitoring of red tides in the future.

Recent changes in oceanic plankton are being reported at unprecedented rates. Most changes are related to environmental factors, and many were identified as driven by climate, either through natural cycles or by anthropogenic effects. However, the separation of both effects is difficult because of the short length of most observational series. Moreover, some changes are related to trends and cycles, while others were perceived as system shifts, often synchronized over large spatial scales. Here, studies on observational series of plankton, with the focus in the North Atlantic, are reviewed. Two main periods of shifts in plankton assemblages were identified: one in the late 1980s and a more recent one at the beginning of the new millennium. While the origin and extent of most shifts varied locally, their synchronization seems to confirm the response of plankton to changes in warming and in large-scale climatic factors. Changes in species abundance and distribution patterns were generally related to hydrographic factors, but also to non-linear effects of warming, the latter particularly affecting species in regions near the limits of their thermal niches. Indeed, most of the changes were attributed to trade-offs between different biological strategies. Taken together, the reviewed case studies indicate a lagged biological response to variations in the local environment driven by large-scale climate forcing. The challenges for interpreting future shifts include considering local changes within a larger geographical area, variations in species life traits, and potential top-down effects of plankton predators.

Mesozooplankton communities in upwelling ecosystems are known to be influenced by seasonal upwelling enhancing primary productivity. However, the extent to which changes in trophic dynamics of mesozooplankton are driven by variations in the baseline of nitrogen or in the trophic position (TP) is poorly understood. We used nitrogen stable isotopes (delta N-15) in bulk and in specific amino acids (CSIA-AA), as well as the taxonomic composition of mesozooplankton samples collected monthly during two full years, to investigate whether the upwelling intensity affects the isotopic N baseline and other trophic indices at the community level in the coastal system off NW Iberian Peninsula. We hypothesized that enhanced phytoplankton productivity during upwelling events would lead to a shorter and more efficient food web. Upwelling induced mesozooplankton herbivory (by increasing the abundance and biomass of omnivorous-herbivorous copepods and other taxa), resulting in a linear decrease of TPGlx (estimated using Glx = glutamic acid + glutamine, which mainly involves metazoan links) from downwelling to upwelling situations. In contrast, TPAla (estimated using alanine, which also reflects microbial trophic pathways) was highest in low-moderate upwelling and decreased with upwelling strength. Thus, an optimal coupling between metazoan and microbial food webs was reached at low-moderate upwelling intensities when the microbial contribution was ca. 25 %, while this contribution decreased (<15 %) either during downwelling or during strong upwelling. However, the significance of differences in mean values of TP and zooplankton composition was small due to the rapid succession of upwelling and downwelling events. Our results illustrate how a combination of CSIA-AA and community data can provide valuable information on rapid changes in mesozooplankton food web structure in highly dynamic upwelling systems.

Estimations of the trophic position and the food web nitrogen baseline from compound-specific isotope analysis of individual amino acids (CSIA-AA) are challenged when the diet of consumer organisms relies on different proportions of vascular and non-vascular primary producers. Here we propose a method to infer such proportions using mixing models and the δ15N CSIA-AA values from marine herbivores. Combining published and new data, we first characterized CSIA-AA values in phytoplankton, macroalgae and vascular plants, and determined their characteristic β values (i.e. the isotopic difference between trophic and source AA). Then, we applied MixSIAR Bayesian isotope mixing models to investigate the transfer of these isotopic signals to marine herbivores (molluscs, green turtles, zooplankton and fish), and their utility to quantify autotrophic sources. We demonstrated that primary producer groups have distinct δ15NAA fingerprints that can be tracked into their primary consumers, thus offering a rapid solution to quantify resource utilization and estimate βmix values in mixed-sourced environments.

The biological pump transports organic carbon produced by photosynthesis to the meso- and bathypelagic zones, the latter removing carbon from exchanging with the atmosphere over centennial time scales. Organisms living in both zones are supported by a passive flux of particles, and carbon transported to the deep-sea through vertical zooplankton migrations. Here we report globally-coherent positive relationships between zooplankton biomass in the epi-, meso-, and bathypelagic layers and average net primary production (NPP). We do so based on a global assessment of available deep-sea zooplankton biomass data and large-scale estimates of average NPP. The relationships obtained imply that increased NPP leads to enhanced transference of organic carbon to the deep ocean. Estimated remineralization from respiration rates by deep-sea zooplankton requires a minimum supply of 0.44 Pg C y −1 transported into the bathypelagic ocean, comparable to the passive carbon sequestration. We suggest that the global coupling between NPP and bathypelagic zooplankton biomass must be also supported by an active transport mechanism associated to vertical zooplankton migration.

21 We simultaneously studied microbial-mediated carbon fluxes at two contrasting 22 sites within the coastal upwelling system off Galicia (in front of A Coruña and Vigo) 23 over an annual cycle in order to compare the fraction of primary production released as 24 dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the degree of coupling between bacteria and 25 phytoplankton. A significant fraction of primary production was released as DOC at 26 both sites, averaging ca. 30%. DOC release accounted for, on average, by 30% of the 27 total bacterial carbon demand, which is indicative of a moderate trophic dependence of 28 bacteria on phytoplankton in these coastal ecosystems. Nevertheless, differences in 29 hydrographic conditions associated to stronger upwelling pulses off Vigo and deeper 30 upper mixed layers during the downwelling period off A Coruña, led to significant 31 differences in phytoplankton dynamics and the subsequent direct coupling with 32 heterotrophic bacteria. Strong direct coupling between phytoplankton extracellular 33 release and bacterial production (BP) was found off Vigo, which could be related to the 34 quality of the DOC produced by actively growing phytoplankton. By contrast, DOC 35 release and BP rates were decoupled off A Coruña, likely due to unaccounted DOC 36 associated to indirect trophic processes or to the low availability of freshly produced

We simultaneously studied microbial-mediated carbon fluxes at 2 contrasting sites within the coastal upwelling system off Galicia, near A Coruna and Vigo, Spain, over an annual cycle in order to compare the fraction of primary production released as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the degree of coupling between bacteria and phytoplankton. A significant fraction of primary production was released as DOC at both sites, averaging similar to 30%. DOC release accounted for, on average, 30% of the total bacterial carbon demand, which is indicative of a moderate trophic dependence of bacteria on phytoplankton in these coastal ecosystems. Nevertheless, differences in hydrographic conditions associated with stronger upwelling pulses off Vigo, and deeper upper mixed layers during the downwelling period off A Coruna, led to significant differences in phytoplankton dynamics and the subsequent direct coupling with heterotrophic bacteria. Strong direct coupling between phytoplankton extracellular release and bacterial production (BP) was found off Vigo, which could be related to the quality of the DOC produced by actively growing phytoplankton. By contrast, DOC release and BP rates were decoupled off A Coruna, likely due to unaccounted DOC associated with indirect trophic processes or to the low availability of freshly produced exudates associated with overflow or photoinhibition mechanisms.

The input of new nitrogen into the euphotic zone constrains the export of organic carbon to the deep ocean and thereby the biologically mediated long-term CO 2 exchange between the ocean and atmosphere. In low-latitude open-ocean regions, turbulence-driven nitrate diffusion from the ocean’s interior and biological fixation of atmospheric N 2 are the main sources of new nitrogen for phytoplankton productivity. With measurements across the tropical and subtropical Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, we show that nitrate diffusion (171±190 μmol m −2 d −1 ) dominates over N 2 fixation (9.0±9.4 μmol m −2 d −1 ) at the time of sampling. Nitrate diffusion mediated by salt fingers is responsible for ca. 20% of the new nitrogen supply in several provinces of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Our results indicate that salt finger diffusion should be considered in present and future ocean nitrogen budgets, as it could supply globally 0.23–1.00 Tmol N yr −1 to the euphotic zone.

With a current estimate of ~1,000 million tons, mesopelagic fishes likely dominate the world total fishes biomass. However, recent acoustic observations show that mesopelagic fishes biomass could be significantly larger than the current estimate. Here we combine modelling and a sensitivity analysis of the acoustic observations from the Malaspina 2010 Circumnavigation Expedition to show that the previous estimate needs to be revised to at least one order of magnitude higher. We show that there is a close relationship between the open ocean fishes biomass and primary production, and that the energy transfer efficiency from phytoplankton to mesopelagic fishes in the open ocean is higher than what is typically assumed. Our results indicate that the role of mesopelagic fishes in oceanic ecosystems and global ocean biogeochemical cycles needs to be revised as they may be respiring ~10% of the primary production in deep waters.