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Villarino, Ernesto ... et al.-- 13 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, supplementary material https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02535-8, Global patterns of planktonic diversity are mainly determined by the dispersal of propagules with ocean currents. However, the role that abundance and body size play in determining spatial patterns of diversity remains unclear. Here we analyse spatial community structure - β-diversity - for several planktonic and nektonic organisms from prokaryotes to small mesopelagic fishes collected during the Malaspina 2010 Expedition. β-diversity was compared to surface ocean transit times derived from a global circulation model, revealing a significant negative relationship that is stronger than environmental differences. Estimated dispersal scales for different groups show a negative correlation with body size, where less abundant large-bodied communities have significantly shorter dispersal scales and larger species spatial turnover rates than more abundant small-bodied plankton. Our results confirm that the dispersal scale of planktonic and micro-nektonic organisms is determined by local abundance, which scales with body size, ultimately setting global spatial patterns of diversity, This research was funded by the project Malaspina 2010 Circumnavigation Expedition (Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CSD2008-00077) and cofounded by the Basque Government (Department Deputy of Agriculture, Fishing and Food Policy). [...] E.V. was supported by a PhD Scholarship granted by the Iñaki Goenaga−Technology Centres Foundation

14 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, DNA methods may contribute to better understand larval dispersal of marine lobsters. The molecular analysis of phyllosoma specimens from the East Atlantic facilitated for the first time here the description of Scyllarus subarctus Crosnier, 1970 larvae. The identification of S. subarctus phyllosomae from Cabo Verde confirmed that this species has a much wider geographic distribution than previously thought. Moreover, the phylogenetic analyses placed S. depressus from the Western Atlantic together with the African species S. subarctus, instead of other American Scyllarus. In fact, S. depressus and S. subarctus formed a strongly supported clade with comparatively low genetic differentiation, suggesting the possibility that they might be recently-diverged sister taxa with an amphi-Atlantic distribution. Support for this is provided by the examination of S. subarctus larvae and the lack of any qualitative character that would allow for differentiation between the adults of S. subarctus and S. depressus. The results obtained highlight the challenges of current Scyllarus systematics and the need for further research on Atlantic slipper lobsters, This research was funded by projects CHALLENGEN (CTM2013-48163) and MAFIA (CTM2012-39587-C04-02) of the Spanish Government and EU-Synthesys grants (DK-TAF-4873: Morphological study of Achelata lobsters and phyllosoma larvae from Danish collections and FR-TAF-5980: Description of phyllosoma stages of West-African lobster species). FP acknowledges project FP7 Marie Curie IAPP #324475 ‘Colbics’ of the European Union and a post-doctoral contract funded by the Beatriu de Pinos Programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The subtropical ocean gyres are recognized as great marine accummulation zones of floating plastic debris; however, the possibility of plastic accumulation at polar latitudes has been overlooked because of the lack of nearby pollution sources. In the present study, the Arctic Ocean was extensively sampled for floating plastic debris from the Tara Oceans circumpolar expedition. Although plastic debris was scarce or absent in most of the Arctic waters, it reached high concentrations (hundreds of thousands of pieces per square kilometer) in the northernmost and easternmost areas of the Greenland and Barents seas. The fragmentation and typology of the plastic suggested an abundant presence of aged debris that originated from distant sources. This hypothesis was corroborated by the relatively high ratios of marine surface plastic to local pollution sources. Surface circulation models and field data showed that the poleward branch of the Thermohaline Circulation transfers floating debris from the North Atlantic to the Greenland and Barents seas, which would be a dead end for this plastic conveyor belt. Given the limited surface transport of the plastic that accumulated here and the mechanisms acting for the downward transport, the seafloor beneath this Arctic sector is hypothesized as an important sink of plastic debris., Tara Oceans particularly acknowledges the commitment of the following sponsors: the CNRS (in particular Groupement de Recherche GDR3280), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Genoscope/CEA, French Government “Investissements d’Avenir” programs OCEANOMICS (ANR-11-BTBR-0008) and FRANCE GENOMIQUE (ANR-10-INBS-09-08), Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and European Union FP7 (Micro B3 no. 287589). We appreciate the support and commitment of agnès b. and E. Bourgois, Veolia Environment Foundation, Region Bretagne, Lorient Agglomeration, World Courier, Illumina, Eléctricité de France Foundation, Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité, Prince Albert II de Monaco Foundation, Tara Foundation, its schooner, and its teams. We are also grateful to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for supporting the expedition and to the countries that granted sampling permissions. Tara Oceans would not exist without continuous support from 23 institutes (http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/m/science/les-labos-impliques/). This article is contribution number 52 of Tara Oceans. This study is funded by Tara Oceans and the Malaspina 2010 Expedition project (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, CSD2008-00077) and has received additional support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology through baseline funding to X.I. and C.M.D., Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR), and PLASTREND (BBVA Foundation) and MIDaS (CTM2016-77106-R, AEI/FEDER/UE) projects.

Axayacatl Molina-Ramírez et al., © 2015 The Author. We have supplemented available, concurrent measurements of fresh weight (W, g) and body carbon (C, g) (46 individuals, 14 species) and nitrogen (N, g) (11 individuals, 9 species) of marine gelatinous animals with data obtained during the global ocean MALASPINA 2010 Expedition (totalling 267 individuals and 33 species for the W versus C data; totalling 232 individuals and 31 species for the N versus C data). We then used those data to test the allometric properties of the W versus C and N versus C relationships. Overall, gelatinous organisms contain 1.13 ± 1.57% of C (by weight, mean ± SD) in their bodies and show a C:N of 4.56 ± 2.46, respectively, although estimations can be improved by using separate conversion coefficients for the carnivores and the filter feeders. Reduced major axis regression indicates that W increases isometrically with C in the carnivores (cnidarians and ctenophores), implying that their water content can be described by a single conversion coefficient of 173.78 gW(g C)-1, or a C content of 1.17 ± 1.90% by weight, although there is much variability due to the existence of carbon-dense species. In contrast, W increases more rapidly than C in the filter feeders (salps and doliolids), according to a power relationship W = 446.68C1.54. This exponent is not significantly different from 1.2, which is consistent with the idea that the watery bodies of gelatinous animals represent an evolutionary response towards increasing food capture surfaces, i.e. a bottom-up rather than a top-down mechanism. Thus, the available evidence negates a bottom-up mechanism in the carnivores, but supports it in the filter feeders. Last, N increases isometrically with C in both carnivores and filter feeders with C:N ratios of 3.89 ± 1.34 and 4.38 ± 1.21, respectively. These values are similar to those of compact, non-gelatinous organisms and reflect a predominantly herbivorous diet in the filter feeders, which is confirmed by a difference of one trophic level between filter feeders and carnivores, according to stable N isotope enrichment data., This work was supported by the MALASPINA 2010 Expedition project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN-08-CSD2008-00077) in collaboration with the Spanish Navy and the BBVA foundation. This is a contribution of the Asturias Marine Observatory

Although Parthenopidae is a brachyuran decapod family comprising almost 140 species, there is little knowledge about its larval morphology. There are only two complete larval developments reared in the laboratory and some larval stages described for seven species. In the present work these data are compared and analysed. A summary is made of the larval features that characterize parthenopids that can be used to distinguish them from other brachyuran larvae. In addition, the megalopa stage of Derilambrus angulifrons and Parthenopoides massena was collected from plankton and identified by DNA barcodes. The morphology of the megalopa of D. angulifrons is described for the first time, and that of P. massena is compared with a previous description., The research was carried out within the framework of the projects MEGALOPADN (CGL2009-11225) and ‘Transporte y reclutamiento larvario de crustáceos bentónicos litorales: importancia de los agentes forzadores costeros y regimen mareal’ (CTM2005- 00024/MAR), both co-financed by the ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competividad (MINECO)’ Spanish Plan R + D + I and FEDER. Elena Marco-Herrero acknowledges the pre-doctoral FPI Fellowships supported by MINECO (BES-2010-033297 and EEBB-I-13-07501).

Andrés Cózar et al., There is a rising concern regarding the accumulation of floating plastic debris in the open ocean. However, the magnitude and the fate of this pollution are still open questions. Using data from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation, regional surveys, and previously published reports, we show a worldwide distribution of plastic on the surface of the open ocean, mostly accumulating in the convergence zones of each of the five subtropical gyres with comparable density. However, the global load of plastic on the open ocean surface was estimated to be on the order of tens of thousands of tons, far less than expected. Our observations of the size distribution of floating plastic debris point at important size-selective sinks removing millimeter-sized fragments of floating plastic on a large scale. This sink may involve a combination of fast nano-fragmentation of the microplastic into particles of microns or smaller, their transference to the ocean interior by food webs and ballasting processes, and processes yet to be discovered. Resolving the fate of the missing plastic debris is of fundamental importance to determine the nature and significance of the impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean., This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Malaspina 2010 expedition project (Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CSD2008-00077) and the Migrants and Active Flux in the Atlantic Ocean project (CTM2012-39587-C04-01)

12 páginas, 8 figuras, 4 tablas., The present study describes the reproductive biology, population structure and life history traits of the abundant intertidal crab Xantho poressa. Between March 2007 and April 2008, a total of 1918 individuals were collected in Corrales de Rota (south-western Spain), a human-modified intertidal habitat characterized by an artificial high complexity. Suitable refuges for crabs (cobbles and boulders) are very abundant in this area and density (maximum of 50 ind*m−2) was directly related with the area covered by these stones. In spring and summer, size–frequency distributions showed a polymodal pattern with seasonal variations related to the incorporation of juveniles to the adult population. Newly settled juveniles were not found in the Corrales suggesting an ontogenetic migration from a distant recruitment habitat. The annual reproductive cycle was seasonal and successive peaks in the abundance of ovigerous females were observed in late spring and summer. Females probably produced multiple broods during a long intermoult period. The gonadosomatic index had a cyclic pattern of variation with peaks two weeks prior to those of ovigerous females; it was lower during the non-reproductive season. The hepatosomatic index was high during spring, decreased during summer and increased gradually at the end of the reproductive season. There was a monthly cycle of larval release resulting from a combination of a cyclic and synchronic ovarian maturity, oviposition and incubation; hatching took place during neap tides when the moon was at last quarter. The adaptive significance of the rhythmic reproduction and hatching observed may not be explained by the predator avoidance hypotheses. The overall sex-ratio did not differ from 1:1 but one male and several females coexist under a stone, indicating a female biased operative sex-ratio. The combination of a complex habitat, its use, and a strong sexual dimorphism suggest a refuge–defence polygenic mating system. The survival and fitness of X. poressa in the Corrales de Rota are probably enhanced by the availability of shelter, a consequence of a highly complex habitat, and probably, of human activity., This study was partially carried out during a 6-month visit by E.D.S. to the Instituto de Ciencias Marinas de Andalucía (ICMAN), supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia de España (MEC) through a grant for foreign professors and researchers visiting laboratories in Spain during their sabbatical years (SAB2005-0170).