Subtropical gyres are large areas of the ocean characterized by high stratification, low nutrients, and low primary production. The Canary Current System (CanCS) shows a rather strong seasonal thermocline during most of the annual cycle, which erodes through convective mixing from January to March promoting the so-called Late Winter Bloom (LWB). Atmospheric deposition from the Sahara desert is also another key feature of the CanCS providing additional nutrients to the euphotic zone. As a consequence of global warming, these oligotrophic regimes systems are expanding and the temperature increase affects phytoplankton, and reverberate on the food web structure and biogeochemical cycles. In the CanCS, the effect of warming and dust deposition on the planktonic community remains poorly know. Here, we show the effects of a 0.5°C increase in ocean temperature during two consecutive years. During 2011, winter temperature allowed the development of the LWB, promoting the increase of autotrophic cells and the coexistence of the microbial loop and the “classic” trophic web. The former predominated before and after the LWB, while the latter prevailed during the LWB. The rather high temperature during 2010 prevented the LWB development, causing highly oligotrophic conditions and episodic events of Saharan dust contributing to nutrient inputs. During this warm year, we found a dominance of small cells such as nanoflagellates and dinoflagellates, and surprisingly high biomass of mesozooplankton, hinting at the “tunneling effect” as an alternative trophic pathway (rapid uptake of phosphate by prokaryotes which are consumed by flagellates and then by zooplankton). These changes show the impact of a slight increase in temperature in this oligotrophic system and how future scenarios in the context of global warming could promote considerable shifts in the trophic web structure.

Top-down effects in the pelagic realm are quite well known in freshwater ecosystems. However, our knowledge of these effects in the ocean remains scant. It is known that copepods prefer to prey on ciliates and heterotrophic dinoflagellates, and their high or low abundances can change the structure of microplankton communities. Field studies in subtropical waters have shown parallel increases of mesozooplankton and phytoplankton without a lag, suggesting a top-down effect of mesozooplankton preying upon microzooplankton and releasing primary producers from predation. In the present work, we added copepods at increasing densities to natural plankton in 24 h experiments. A decrease in aloricated ciliates abundance of nearly 50% and increases in the abundances of picoeukaryotes, Synechococcus, Prochlorococcus, diatoms, and chlorophyll a were observed. No effect of nutrient additions was observed in parallel grazing experiments. Thus, a top-down effect of copepods upon microzooplankton explains the observed changes in the abundance of the different phytoplankton groups. Copepods promote important changes down the food web, structuring the community by predation upon microzooplankton. There are biogeochemical consequences of zooplankton variability over short time scales in the ocean.

The microbial planktonic community of the subtropical waters around Gran Canaria Island, Canary Islands, was studied before, during and after the typical late winter bloom. The study consisted of a weekly sampling from October 2005 to June 2006 at five stations. Abundances and biomass of heterotrophic prokaryotes, small autotrophic plankton (picoplankton 0.2–2μm in ESD), heterotrophic and autotrophic nanoflagellates (nanoplankton mainly in the range of 3–4μm in ESD), microzooplankton (mainly ciliates and dinoflagellates 15–200μm in ESD) and mesozooplankton (>200μm in ESD) were estimated in order to know the effect of the winter mixing. During all the period of study, microplankton abundance was dominated by small athecate dinoflagellates (15–20μm in ESD) whereas its biomass was dominated by aloricate ciliates (20–30μm and >40μm in ESD). The bloom began with the increase of autotrophic picoplanktonic cells and small diatoms. Consecutively, nano-, micro-, and mesozooplankton biomass also increased. During the development of the winter bloom, picoplankton, heterotrophic nanoflagellates, microzooplankton, mainly aloricate ciliates, and mesozooplankton showed inverse trends suggesting that the bloom is a succession of complex top-down controls.

Seamounts are considered to be "hotspots" of marine life but, their role in oceans primary productivity is still under discussion. We have studied the microbial community structure and biomass of the epipelagic zone (0-150 m) at two northeast Atlantic seamounts (Seine and Sedlo) and compared those with the surrounding ocean. Results from two cruises to Sedlo and three to Seine are presented. Main results show large temporal and spatial microbial community variability on both seamounts. Both Seine and Sedlo heterotrophic community (abundance and biomass) dominate during winter and summer months, representing 75% (Sedlo, July) to 86% (Seine, November) of the total plankton biomass. In Seine, during springtime the contribution to total plankton biomass is similar (47% autotrophic and 53% heterotrophic). Both seamounts present an autotrophic community structure dominated by small cells (nano and picophytoplankton). It is also during spring that a relatively important contribution (26%) of large cells to total autotrophic biomass is found. In some cases, a 'seamount effect" is observed on Seine and Sedlo microbial community structure and biomass. In Seine this is only observed during spring through enhancement of large autotrophic cells at the summit and seamount stations. In Sedlo, and despite the observed low biomasses, some clear peaks of picoplankton at the summit or at stations within the seamount area are also observed during summer. Our results suggest that the dominance of heterotrophs is presumably related to the trapping effect of organic matter by seamounts. Nevertheless, the complex circulation around both seamounts with the presence of different sources of mesoscale variability (e.g. presence of meddies, intrusion of African upwelling water) may have contributed to the different patterns of distribution, abundances and also changes observed in the microbial community.

A bloom of the non-heterocystous diazotrophic cyanobacterium. Tiichodesmium erythraeurn Ehrenberg is reported in the Canary Islands Archipelago during August of 2004, the warmest period of a meteorological series recorded by the National Institute of Meteorology (Spain) since 1912. Samples showed massive occurrences of T erythraeurn (1000 filaments ml(-1)) in different sectors of northern and southern waters off the central Canary Islands. Water analyses also showed a relatively low presence of dinoflagellates and diatoms. Quasi-true colour satellite images of dust storms, elevated sea surface temperature (the warmest satellite-derived record), chlorophyll a and geostrophic current fields showed satellite-derived optical positives of Trichodesmium in an African upwelling advective, jet-drifting westward current off the south Canary Islands. Analyses for cyanotoxins using HPLC found microcystins, which was confirmed by immunoassay, at concentrations from 0.1 to 1.0 mu g microcystin-LR equivalents (g(-1) dry weight of bloom material). A T. erythraeum bloom such as that observed in August 2004 in the NW African Upwelling does not appear to have been recorded for the area previously. The bloom may have developed due to the exceptionally warm weather and/or to the massive dust storms from the Sahara Desert observed in the NE Atlantic in August 2004.

The variability in dissolved and particulate organic matter, plankton biomass, community structure and metabolism, and vertical carbon fluxes were studied at four stations (D1–D4), placed along a coastal-offshore gradient of an upwelling filament developed near Cape Juby (NW Africa). The filament was revealed as a complex and variable system in terms of its hydrological structure and distribution of biological properties. An offshore shift from large to small phytoplankton cells, as well as from higher to lower autotrophic biomass, was not paralleled by a similar gradient in particulate (POC) or dissolved (DOC) organic carbon. Rather, stations in the central part of the filament (D2 and D3) presented the highest organic matter concentrations. Autotrophic carbon (POCChl) accounted for 53% (onshore station, D1) to 27% (offshore station, D4) of total POC (assuming a carbon to chlorophyll ratio of 50), from which nano- and pico-phytoplankton biomasses (POCA < 10 μm) represented 14% (D1) to 79% (D4) of POCChl. The biomass of small hetrotrophs (POCH < 10 μm) was equivalent to POCA < 10 μm, except at D1, where small autotrophs were less abundant. Dark community respiration (Rd) in the euphotic zone was in general high, almost equivalent to gross production (Pg), but decreasing offshore (D1–D4, from 108 to 41 mmol C m−2 d−1). POC sedimentation rates (POCsed) below the euphotic zone ranged from 17 to 6 mmol C m−2 d−1. Only at D4 was a positive carbon balance observed: Pg−(Rd + POCsed) = 42 mmol C m−2 d−1. Compared to other filament studies from the NE Atlantic coast, the Cape Juby filament presented lower sedimentation rates and higher respiration rates with respect to gross production. We suggest that this is caused by the recirculation of the filament water, induced by the presence of an associated cyclonic eddy, acting as a trapping mechanism for organic matter. The export capacity of the Cape Juby filament therefore would be constrained to the frequency of the interactions of the filament with island-induced eddies.

Selective treatment of pig kidney fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase with potassium cyanate leads to the formation of an active carbamylated enzyme that has lost the cooperative interactions among AMP sites, but retains sensitivity to inhibition of catalytic activity by the regulator AMP. Incorporation data on [14C]KNCO indicate that the loss of enzyme cooperativity at the AMP sites is related to selective carbamylation of four lysine residues per mole of tetrameric enzyme. Exhaustive carbamylation suggests that a second lysine residue per subunit is essential for AMP inhibition.