Search

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.

14 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, Surface waters are an attractive foraging ground for small fish in the open ocean. This study aims to determine the importance of vertically migrating species in the neuston of oceanic waters across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans and to ascertain the influence of environmental variables on their distribution patterns. Neustonic fish assemblages were primarily controlled by light. They were dominated by late-larvae and juveniles of Exocoetidae, Hemiramphidae and Scomberesocidae during the day. At night, the vertical migration of mesopelagic species changed the dominance pattern in favour of Myctophidae and Scomberesocidae. The neustonic families’ distribution was primarily related to sea surface temperatures, whereas environmental variables at deeper layers were related to mesopelagic migrating families. Canonical correspondence analysis showed a low but statistically significant contribution of several environmental variables to myctophid species composition (10%), with minimum oxygen concentrations ranking first in variance explanation followed by maximum fluorescence, sea surface temperature and 400-m temperature. Spatial autocorrelation also explained 17% of the variance, indicating the influence of other factors such as historical, demographic and dispersal constraints. The low number of myctophid species in the North Pacific Equatorial Countercurrent appears to be related to the low oxygen concentrations observed in this province, This study was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CSD2008-00077 and CTM2012–39587-C04–03)

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of temperature on the survival and duration of larval development in the African pea crab Afropinnotheres monodi, as well as to describe its larval stages. We studied larvae reared in the laboratory and also specimens collected from plankton from the Gulf of Cádiz at two different temperatures. According to the results of this study, larval development of A. monodi involves four zoea stages and one megalopa and lasts around 25 days at 25°C, and longer than 40 days at 19°C. Such a temperature-related duration of this dispersive phase may be causing a higher recruitment to parental populations during the summer, but a higher dispersal to new locations during the rest of the year, a seasonal pattern of dispersion which could favour the successful expansion of this non-native species into European waters. The identification of both larval phases from plankton samples and adult specimens was carried out using morphological characters and molecular techniques. Both the 16S mtDNA sequences of this species, now available in GenBank, and the larval descriptions provided by this study could help to establish an early alert for the detection of this African species in its northward expansion., The research was carried out within the framework of the projects MEGALOPADN [CGL2009-11225], ‘Transporte y reclutamiento larvario de crustáceos bentónicos litorales: importancia de los agentes forzadores costeros y regimen mareal’ [CTM2005-00024/MAR] and AFROBIV [CGL2014-53557-P], co-financed by the ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competividad (MINECO)’ Spanish Plan R+D+I and ERDF, European Union. Elena Marco-Herrero acknowledges a pre-doctoral FPI Fellowship supported by MINECO [BES-2010-033297].

The morphology of the megalopa stage of the panopeid Rhithropanopeus harrisii is redescribed and illustrated in detail from plankton specimens identified by DNA barcode (16S mtDNA) as previous descriptions do not meet the current standard of brachyuran larval description. Several morphological characters vary widely from those of other panopeid species which could cast some doubt on the species' placement in the same family. Besides, some anomalous megalopae of R. harrisii were found among specimens reared at the laboratory from zoeae collected in the plankton. These anomalous morphological features are discussed in terms of problems associated with laboratory rearing conditions. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg and AWI., 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 European Union FEDER funds. Elena Marco-Herrero acknowledges the pre-doctoral FPI Fellowship supported by MINECO (BES-2010-033297).

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)

Copyright: © 2015 Cózar et al. Concentrations of floating plastic were measured throughout the Mediterranean Sea to assess whether this basin can be regarded as a great accumulation region of plastic debris. We found that the average density of plastic (1 item per 4 m2), as well as its frequency of occurrence (100% of the sites sampled), are comparable to the accumulation zones described for the five subtropical ocean gyres. Plastic debris in the Mediterranean surface waters was dominated by millimeter-sized fragments, but showed a higher proportion of large plastic objects than that present in oceanic gyres, reflecting the closer connection with pollution sources. The accumulation of floating plastic in the Mediterranean Sea (between 1,000 and 3,000 tons) is likely related to the high human pressure together with the hydrodynamics of this semi-enclosed basin, with outflow mainly occurring through a deep water layer. Given the biological richness and concentration of economic activities in the Mediterranean Sea, the affects of plastic pollution on marine and human life are expected to be particularly frequent in this plastic accumulation region., The present study was funded by the EU's Framework Programme 7 and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through projects MedSeA (EU contract number FP7-2010-265103), ESTRESX (ref. CTM2012-32603) and MEGAN (ref. CTM2013-49048-C2-1-R). Andrés Cózar is grateful for the funding of a >Salvador de Madariaga> stay to continue the study of the plastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea (Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, ref. PRX14/00743)