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The use of heterogeneous catalysts is fundamental in the search for sustainable chemical processes. Research on hierarchical materials is a growing field aimed at optimizing the synthesis of catalysts. In this work, layered materials with metals of different cationic ratios and three-dimensional hierarchical structures have been synthesized in a simple and easy way using carbon spheres as support. All materials were characterized with various techniques such as XRF, elemental analysis XRD, FT-IR, SEM, and TEM to study their composition and structure. Finally, these materials were used in the Baeyer–Villiger reaction, which was carried out under optimized conditions. The results showed that the metal ratio was an important factor in the coating process, affecting the catalytic capacity of the materials.

Sea spray aerosol (SSA) formation plays a major role in the climate system. The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is affected by the greatest warming occurring in the Southern Ocean; changes in cryospheric and biological processes are being observed. Whilst there is some evidence that organic material produced by ice algae and/or phytoplankton in the high Arctic contributes to SSA, less is known about Antarctic Sea ice (sympagic) regions. To gain insight into the influence of Antarctic Sea ice biology and biogeochemistry on atmospheric aerosol, we report simultaneous water-air measurements made by means of in situ aerosol chamber experiments. For the first time, we present a methodology showing that the controlled plunging jet aerosol chamber settings do not cause major cell disruption on the studied sea ice ecosystems. Larger sea ice phytoplankton cells (>20 µm; mainly diatoms) tend to sediment at the bottom of the chamber (during the 24h experiment) and likely have a minor role on SSA production. When comparing four chamber experiments - we find that the two producing more SSA are the ones with highest abundance of nanophytoplankton cells (

Ramon Margalef López (1919-2004) was one of the most prominent scientists of the 20th century in the fields of limnology, oceanography and ecology. His contributions to theoretical ecology, which won him international recognition, were based on a great deal of laboratory and field work and on extensive observations of the natural world, a passion that he acquired at a young age. Some of the early papers of Ramon Margalef appeared in the Publicaciones del Instituto de Biología Aplicada, but as of 1955 many of his marine studies were published in Investigación Pesquera, the journal of the Instituto de Investigaciones Pesqueras of the CSIC in Barcelona. He also wrote several articles for Scientia Marina, the journal that replaced Investigación Pesquera in 1989 after the Instituto de Investigaciones Pesqueras became the Institut de Ciències del Mar. The present article aims to give an overview of Margalef’s contributions to these journals to mark the celebration in 2019 of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Taking as reference the period of deep financial and economic crisis suffered at global level, with special incidence in the Spanish financial industry, this paper examines the effect of entity crisis on consumer loyalty, studying the halo effect on trust, brand image and social norms. A causal model is proposed and contrasted with a sample of 500 bank customers and structural equation models were used to verify the hypothesized relationships. The contribution of this research is related to the analysis of the model proposed from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The general model establishes the consumption habits of customers during an entity crisis. It can be seen that the most important antecedent of loyalty are social norms, followed by trust and then brand image. However, the intensity of the crisis in each entity changes the results. The findings suggest that loyalty is an anti-cyclic strategy for firms. Investing in building customer loyalty in boom years generates positive credit towards the firm from customers who are unwilling to abandon it even when it is in crisis. The halo effect is fulfilled in the sense that customers’ general opinion of the entity and the more emotional variable determines and moderates negative news from the environment which attempts to influence consumers’ beliefs.

This study aimed to improve the understanding of the nutrient modulation of Ostreopsis cf. ovata toxin content. During the 2018 natural bloom in the NW Mediterranean, the total toxin content (up to ca. 57.6 ± 7.0 pg toxin cell−1) varied markedly. The highest values often coincided with elevated O. cf. ovata cell abundance and with low inorganic nutrient concentrations. The first culture experiment with a strain isolated from that bloom showed that cell toxin content was higher in the stationary than in the exponential phase of the cultures; phosphate- and nitrate-deficient cells exhibited similar cell toxin variability patterns. The second experiment with different conditions of nitrogen concentration and source (nitrate, urea, ammonium, and fertilizer) presented the highest cellular toxin content in the high-nitrogen cultures; among these, urea induced a significantly lower cellular toxin content than the other nutrient sources. Under both high- and low-nitrogen concentrations, cell toxin content was also higher in the stationary than in the exponential phase. The toxin profile of the field and cultured cells included ovatoxin (OVTX) analogues -a to -g and isobaric PLTX (isoPLTX). OVTX-a and -b were dominant while OVTX-f, -g, and isoPLTX contributed less than 1-2%. Overall, the data suggest that although nutrients determine the intensity of the O. cf. ovata bloom, the relationship of major nutrient concentrations, sources and stoichiometry with cellular toxin production is not straightforward.

Purpose – This study aims to determine the main antecedents of customer engagement (market orientation, satisfaction, emotions and self-brand connection) and the relationship between customer engagement and customer loyalty in the retail-banking context. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model of effects is tested using dyadic methodology, based on 225 dyads (bank branch manager–average of five branch customers). The authors use structural equation modelling (EQS 6.1) to test the relationships. Findings – The results reveal a strong relationship between customer engagement and customer loyalty. Satisfaction is the main antecedent of customer engagement. Self-brand connection and emotions during the service also have a significant influence. Finally, branch market orientation has a positive influence on satisfaction and emotions. Research limitations/implications – The first concerns the transversal data used. Geographical context is the second limitation. Third, the study sample only included customers with experience of the financial services of a specific bank (online customers are not included). Finally, the dyads are based on the opinion of the branch manager, on one hand, and an average of five customers per branch, on the other. Practical implications – The combination of the branding strategy at the corporate level and the relationship marketing strategy at branch office level creates a situation in which customer engagement and customer loyalty can thrive. The communication campaigns designed to promote the brand image and associate brand values with the personality of the banks’ current and potential customers help to create an emotional bond that represents a switching cost for the customer. The moments of truth in branch offices are crucial aspects in the retail bank strategy. Originality/value – First, from the conceptual perspective, it establishes a direct relationship between customer engagement and customer loyalty. Second, it empirically tested Pansari and Kumar’s (2017) customer engagement framework, which establishes customer satisfaction and customer emotions as the antecedents of customer engagement. Third, the study took an innovative step in establishing two levels of customer emotions in the retail bank context: emotions generated by corporate branding and emotions that arise during the experience of purchase and consuming. Fourth, the study shows that the market orientation adopted not at the macro corporate level but at the individual branch level is crucial to the generation of positive relational outcomes in the service the customer receives. The fifth contribution is related to the fact that the research streams associated with market orientation and relationship quality have traditionally been studied in isolation.

The relationships between the structure of the phytoplankton community and the bio-optical properties of surface waters were studied during the TransPEGASO cruise along a transect across the Atlantic Ocean that covered seven biogeographical provinces, from the Alborán Sea (SW Mediterranean) to the Patagonian Shelf. We characterized the composition of the phytoplankton community by means of high-performance liquid chromatography and CHEMTAX pigment analyses applied to whole water and two filtration size classes (< 3 and ≥ 3 μm), flow cytometric determinations and microscopic observations. Additionally, the study was complemented by measurements of the absorption of particulate matter and coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM). The size class distribution of the chlorophyll a (Chl a) obtained from the size-fractionated filtration (SFF) was compared with that resulting from the diagnostic pigment algorithms (VU) developed by Vidussi et al. (2001) and Uitz et al. (2006), and the total Chl a–based expressions (HI) of Hirata et al. (2011). The seven provinces crossed by the transect could be divided into an oligotrophic group with Chl a < 0.25 mg m-3 comprising the tropical and subtropical Atlantic (including the Canary Current Coastal Province), and a eutrophic group (Chl a > 0.5 mg m-3) with a single Mediterranean (MEDI) sample and those from the southwestern Atlantic Shelf (SWAS). According to CHEMTAX, the most important taxa in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic were Prochlorococcus, haptophytes and Synechoccoccus, while the MEDI and SWAS were dominated by diatoms and haptophytes. Both the VU and HI algorithms, which are based on pigment composition or Chl a concentration, predicted for SWAS a high proportion of nano- and microphytoplankton, while the SFF indicated dominance of the < 3 μm size class. In addition, the CHEMTAX results indicated a high average diatom contribution in this province. However, at several SWAS stations with relatively high values of diatom Chl a estimated by CHEMTAX, the microscopic observations found only small concentrations of nano- or microplankton-sized cells. This discrepancy appeared to be due to the presence, confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, of picoplankton-sized cells of the diatom Minidiscus sp. and of Parmales (a group sharing the pigment composition with the diatoms). These findings caution against a routine assignment of diatom pigments to the microplankton size class. The total non-water absorption in the water column was dominated by CDOM. The average contribution of phytoplankton absorption for the different provinces ranged from 19.3% in the MEDI to 45.7% in the SWAS and 47% in the western tropical Atlantic (WTRA). The Chl a–specific phytoplankton absorption [aph*(443), m2 mg-1] was lower in the MEDI and SWAS than in the oligotrophic provinces. aph*(443) was negatively correlated with the first principal component derived from a principal component analysis based on the concentration of the main pigments and was not correlated with indicators of phytoplankton community size structure such as the proportion of Chl a in the < 3 μm class or a size index derived from the VU size class distribution. These findings indicate that the variability observed in aph*(443) was mainly related to differences in pigment composition and possibly to photoacclimation processes, and that any package effects due to cell size were probably masked by other factors, an outcome that may be related to the relatively small influence of size within the narrow range of Chl a concentrations (all ≤ 2.4 mg m-3) considered in our study.

In a global context of climate change affecting the marine environment, it is important to consider the effect of extreme events in driving ecological change and to gain a better understanding of conditions to be expected under future scenarios. In this study we focus on monthly oceanographic data collected off Barcelona city during the period 2002-2012, in which extreme air temperatures and exceptional oceanographic events were reported in the western Mediterranean basin. These included two extreme heat waves and major episodes of dense water formation that produced unusually large deep-water contributions, induced oceanographic changes in the coastal zone and caused significant alterations to the marine ecosystem. To determine whether routine monitoring of oceanographic variables in a coastal zone can provide information for recognizing such large-scale events, temperature, salinity, turbidity and fluorescence were analysed to identify their signatures. The results provide an additional tool for monitoring oceanographic events and improving forecasts and future projections.

Body size is hypothesised to be a major determinant of β-diversity in passively-dispersing marine organisms. Here, Villarino et al. show that plankton body size determines rates of dispersal along marine currents, with shorter dispersal and higher species spatial turnover in larger organisms.

Since the article “Primary Production, an Index of Climate Change in the Ocean: Satellite-Based Estimates over Two Decades” by Kulk et al [...]

Abstract Climate warming affects the development and distribution of sea ice, but at present the evidence of polar ecosystem feedbacks on climate through changes in the atmosphere is sparse. By means of synergistic atmospheric and oceanic measurements in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, we present evidence that the microbiota of sea ice and sea ice-influenced ocean are a previously unknown significant source of atmospheric organic nitrogen, including low molecular weight alkyl-amines. Given the keystone role of nitrogen compounds in aerosol formation, growth and neutralization, our findings call for greater chemical and source diversity in the modelling efforts linking the marine ecosystem to aerosol-mediated climate effects in the Southern Ocean.

There has been considerable academic interest in learning styles in recent decades aimed at developing more efficient methodologies in the teaching-learning process. However, few studies have analysed the existing relationship between learning styles according to the whole brain model and emotional intelligence in university students, the proposal of the present research. Methodology: Dominant learning styles were measured with the Whole Brain Theory Diagnosis, a shortened adaptation of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. Emotional intelligence was measured using a simplified adaptation of the Spanish version of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale. Results: Learning styles based on mixed dominances positively influence the development of emotional intelligence. Learning styles associated with the right hemisphere were also found to have a greater impact on emotional intelligence. Conclusions: Students should be trained in a learning style that enables the use of mixed dominances, thereby contributing to the development of their emotional intelligence.

The oligotrophic subtropical gyres are the largest biome on Earth, where picoplankton constitute the dominant autotrophs. The trend for autotrophic picoplankton to increase with sea temperature has led to predictions that picophytoplankton abundance will increase with warming. Here we conducted a global survey in the open subtropical-tropical ocean to resolve the functional relationships between picophytoplankton abundance and oceanic properties (water temperature, chlorophyll a concentration, nutrient concentrations, and underwater visible and ultraviolet B radiation). We then used these relationships to build models projecting the future changes of Synechococcus, Prochlorococcus, and eukaryotic picoautotrophs populations in the subtropical gyres with warming. Our goal is to refine the forecasts for this large biome and implement the analysis by including the picoeukaryotes, absent in previous models, but a relevant component of picophytoplankton. The data obtained and the relationships found in our global survey of the subtropical-tropical ocean between picophytoplankton abundance and ocean properties differed from previous global studies including colder (temperate, subpolar, and polar) and coastal waters. These differences included a lower abundance of Synechococcus populations, significant negative relationships between Prochlorococcus abundance and nutrient concentrations, and positive relationships for picoeukaryotes and no relationship for Synechococcus abundance, and, a moderate response to temperature in the warm waters of the tropical-subtropical open ocean. A model based on temperature increase alone forecasts a general increase in picoautotrophs by year 2100, although minimal for picoeukaryotes, and much more moderate for Synechococcus than previously forecasted. However, a global change model linking the thermal increase with the associated decline in chlorophyll a, and increased underwater solar radiation penetration, projected a decline in the abundance of autotrophic picoplankton. The decline was larger at the surface layer and partially compensated by the increased importance of deep picophytoplankton blooms, especially those of Prochlorococcus. The global change model predicted an increased dominance of Prochlorococcus sp. in the subtropical-tropical ocean with future warming. Our results, based on current patterns of picophytoplankton distribution, help improve existing projections by considering feedbacks affecting picophytoplankton abundance in the future subtropical and tropical ocean, the larger biome on Earth.

This paper provides an overview of the last 40 years of use, and in many cases abuse, of the natural resources in Catalonia, a country that is representative of European countries in general, and especially those in the Mediterranean region. It analyses the use of natural resources made by mining, agriculture, livestock, logging, fishing, nature tourism, and energy production and consumption. This use results in an ecological footprint, i.e., the productive land and sea surface required to generate the consumed resources and absorb the resulting waste, which is about seven times the amount available, a very high number but very similar to other European countries. This overexploitation of natural resources has a huge impact on land and its different forms of cover, air, and water. For the last 25 years, forests and urban areas have each gained almost 3% more of the territory at the expense of agricultural land; those municipalities bordering the sea have increased their number of inhabitants and activity, and although they only occupy 6.7% of the total surface area, they account for 43.3% of the population; air quality has stabilized since the turn of the century, and there has been some improvement in the state of aquatic ecosystems, but still only 36% are in good condition, while the remainder have suffered morphological changes and different forms of nonpoint source pollution; meanwhile the biodiversity of flora and fauna remains still under threat. Environmental policies do not go far enough so there is a need for revision of the legislation related to environmental impact and the protection of natural areas, flora, and fauna. The promotion of environmental research must be accompanied by environmental education to foster a society which is more knowledgeable, has more control and influence over the decisions that deeply affect it. Indeed, nature conservation goes hand in hand with other social and economic challenges that require a more sustainable vision. Today’s problems with nature derive from the current economic model, which is environmentally unsustainable in that it does not take into account environmental impacts. Lastly, we propose a series of reasonable and feasible priority measures and actions related to each use made of the country’s natural resources, to the impacts they have had, and to their management, in the hope that these can contribute to improving the conservation and management of the environment and biodiversity and move towards sustainability.

Phytoplankton blooms are events of production and accumulation of phytoplankton biomass that influence ecosystem dynamics and may also have effects on socio-economic activities. Among the biological factors that affect bloom dynamics, prey selection by zooplankton may play an important role. Here we consider the initial state of development of an algal bloom and analyse how a reduced grazing pressure can allow an algal species with a lower intrinsic growth rate than a competitor to become dominant. We use a simple model with two microalgal species and one zooplankton grazer to derive general relationships between phytoplankton growth and zooplankton grazing. These relationships are applied to two common grazing response functions in order to deduce the mathematical constraints that the parameters of these functions must obey to allow the dominance of the lower growth rate competitor. To assess the usefulness of the deduced relationships in a more general framework, the results are applied in the context of a multispecies ecosystem model (ERSEM).

Minidiscus comicus is a marine centric diatom that has cells with diameters as small as 1.9 μm, which brings it close to the lower limit of diatom cell size and also near to the lower limit of photosynthetic eukaryote cells. One of the questions that this raises is whether the cycle of size decline and size restoration used by most diatoms to time their life cycle can operate in such small cells. In samples collected from the western Mediterranean during 2009, M. comicus cells were found with diameters ranging from 1.9 to 6.0 μm. The larger cells were initial cells after size restoration, and these still had the valves of their parent cells attached, making it possible to determine the diameter of the threshold below which size restoration could be induced (3.1 μm). During size decline, M. comicus cell shape changed from discoid to spherical. This adaptation helped to reduce and even halt the rate of cell volume decrease, allowing cells to continue to use diameter decline as a clocking mechanism. The results show how adaptable the diatom cell wall can be, in spite of its rigid appearance.

We carried out monthly photosynthesis-irradiance (P-E) experiments with the 14C-method for 12 years (2003–2014) to determine the photosynthetic parameters and primary production of surface phytoplankton in the Blanes Bay Microbial Observatory, a coastal sampling station in the NW Mediterranean Sea. Our goal was to obtain seasonal trends and to establish the basis for detecting future changes of primary production in this oligotrophic area. The maximal photosynthetic rate PBmax ranged 30-fold (0.5-15 mg C mg Chl a–1 h–1), averaged 3.7 mg C mg Chl a–1 h–1 (±0.25 SE) and was highest in August and lowest in April and December. We only observed photoinhibition twice. The initial or light-limited slope of the P-E relationship, αB, was low, averaging 0.007 mg C mg Chl a–1 h–1 (μmol photons m–2 s–1)–1 (±0.001 SE, range 0.001-0.045) and showed the lowest values in spring (April-June). The light saturation parameter or saturation irradiance, EK, averaged 711 μmol photons m–2 s–1 (± 58.4 SE) and tended to be higher in spring and lower in winter. Phytoplankton assemblages were typically dominated by picoeukaryotes in early winter, diatoms in late autumn and late winter, dinoflagellates in spring and cyanobacteria in summer. Total particulate primary production averaged 1.45 mg C m-3 h–1 (±0.13 SE) with highest values in winter (up to 8.50 mg C m-3 h–1) and lowest values in summer (summer average, 0.30 mg C m-3 h–1), while chlorophyll-specific primary production averaged 2.49 mg C mg Chl a–1 h–1 (±0.19, SE) and peaked in summer (up to 12.0 mg C mg Chl a–1 h–1 in August). 14C-determined phytoplankton growth rates varied between ca. 0.3 d–1 in winter and 0.5 d–1 in summer and were within 60-80% of the maximal rates of growth, based on PBmax. Chlorophyll a was a good predictor of primary production only in the winter and autumn. Seasonality appeared to explain most of the variability in the studied variables, while phytoplankton composition played a minor role. Daily integrated primary production was fairly constant throughout the year: similar to previous oxygen-based estimates in winter but considerably lower than these in summer. The difference between 14C- and oxygen-based estimates of primary production could be explained by community respiration. Annually integrated primary production amounted to a rather modest 48 g C m–2 yr–1 (equivalent to 130 mg C m–2 d–1). Although no interannual patterns were detected, our work soundly establishes the seasonal trends for the coastal NW Mediterranean, therefore setting the basis for future detection of change.

This paper delves into the study of the factors that influence the international competitive position of international new ventures, and consequently, their international performance. By combining international entrepreneurship and marketing disciplines, this work attempts to emphasise the importance of relational knowledge by the influence of network market orientation on the international results obtained by these firms through the mediating effect of competitive advantages. The approach was used to test our hypotheses. The results obtained, using structural equations models and multi-sample analysis, confirm that network market orientation is a determining factor for new ventures to achieve superior international results. This influence is observed indirectly with the mediating effect on the differentiation- and cost-based competitive advantages developed by these firms. This study extends previous international entrepreneurship research, including insights from the marketing discipline on antecedents of international new ventures competitiveness and success in foreign markets. In addition, the results obtained encourage entrepreneurs in the international context to consider the explicit value of other factors different from experiential knowledge, which the company acquired gradually with increasing its experience in the foreign market, to realize the potential value of relational knowledge associated to network market orientation as an antecedent for the achievement of competitive advantages in the international market.

We explored how changes of viral abundance and community composition among four contrasting regions in the Southern Ocean relied on physicochemical and microbiological traits. During January–February 2015, we visited areas north and south of the South Orkney Islands (NSO and SSO) characterized by low temperature and salinity and high inorganic nutrient concentration, north of South Georgia Island (NSG) and west of Anvers Island (WA), which have relatively higher temperatures and lower inorganic nutrient concentrations. Surface viral abundance (VA) was highest in NSG (21.50 ± 10.70 × 106 viruses mL−1) and lowest in SSO (2.96 ± 1.48 × 106 viruses mL−1). VA was positively correlated with temperature, prokaryote abundance and prokaryotic heterotrophic production, chlorophyll a, diatoms, haptophytes, fluorescent organic matter, and isoprene concentration, and was negatively correlated with inorganic nutrients (NO3−, SiO42−, PO43−), and dimethyl sulfide (DMS) concentrations. Viral communities determined by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA–polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) were grouped according to the sampling location, being more similar within them than among regions. The first two axes of a canonical correspondence analysis, including physicochemical (temperature, salinity, inorganic nutrients—NO3−, SiO42−, and dimethyl sulfoniopropionate -DMSP- and isoprene concentrations) and microbiological (chlorophyll a, haptophytes and diatom, and prokaryote abundance and prokaryotic heterotrophic production) factors accounted for 62.9% of the variance. The first axis, temperature-related, accounted for 33.8%; the second one, salinity-related, accounted for 29.1%. Thus, different environmental situations likely select different hosts for viruses, leading to distinct viral communities.

Isoprene is a biogenic trace gas produced by terrestrial vegetation and marine phytoplankton. In the remote oceans, where secondary aerosols are mostly biogenic, marine isoprene emissions affect atmospheric chemistry and influence cloud formation and brightness. Here, we present the first compilation of new and published measurements of isoprene concentrations in the Southern Ocean and explore their distribution patterns. Surface ocean isoprene concentrations in November through April span 1 to 94 pM. A band of higher concentrations is observed around a latitude of ≈40 ∘ S and a surface sea temperature of 15 ∘ C. High isoprene also occurs in high productivity waters near islands and continental coasts. We use concurrent measurements of physical, chemical, and biological variables to explore the main potential drivers of isoprene concentration by means of paired regressions and multivariate analysis. Isoprene is best explained by phytoplankton-related variables like the concentrations of chlorophyll-a, photoprotective pigments and particulate organic matter, photosynthetic efficiency (influenced by iron availability), and the chlorophyll-a shares of most phytoplankton groups, and not by macronutrients or bacterial abundance. A simple statistical model based on chlorophyll-a concentration and a sea surface temperature discontinuity accounts for half of the variance of isoprene concentrations in surface waters of the Southern Ocean.

Primary production by marine phytoplankton is one of the largest fluxes of carbon on our planet. In the past few decades, considerable progress has been made in estimating global primary production at high spatial and temporal scales by combining in situ measurements of primary production with remote-sensing observations of phytoplankton biomass. One of the major challenges in this approach lies in the assignment of the appropriate model parameters that define the photosynthetic response of phytoplankton to the light field. In the present study, a global database of in situ measurements of photosynthesis versus irradiance (P-I) parameters and a 20-year record of climate quality satellite observations were used to assess global primary production and its variability with seasons and locations as well as between years. In addition, the sensitivity of the computed primary production to potential changes in the photosynthetic response of phytoplankton cells under changing environmental conditions was investigated. Global annual primary production varied from 38.8 to 42.1 Gt C yr − 1 over the period of 1998−2018. Inter-annual changes in global primary production did not follow a linear trend, and regional differences in the magnitude and direction of change in primary production were observed. Trends in primary production followed directly from changes in chlorophyll-a and were related to changes in the physico-chemical conditions of the water column due to inter-annual and multidecadal climate oscillations. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis in which P-I parameters were adjusted by ±1 standard deviation showed the importance of accurately assigning photosynthetic parameters in global and regional calculations of primary production. The assimilation number of the P-I curve showed strong relationships with environmental variables such as temperature and had a practically one-to-one relationship with the magnitude of change in primary production. In the future, such empirical relationships could potentially be used for a more dynamic assignment of photosynthetic rates in the estimation of global primary production. Relationships between the initial slope of the P-I curve and environmental variables were more elusive.

Coccolithophores produce calcium carbonate platelets, the coccoliths, and play a significant role in the C and Ca cycles. Coccoliths are important components of marine biogenic carbonate sediments and their chemical analysis can provide tools for paleoceanographic investigation. In particular, the Mg/Ca ratio of coccoliths has been proposed as a paleotemperature proxy. The present study uses X-ray microanalysis to evaluate the Ca and Mg composition of heterococcoliths and holococcoliths of different coccolithophore species. Our measurements indicate that the Mg values in heterococcoliths do not exceed a low threshold and do not show any consistent relationship with the Ca content, while the Mg content of holococcoliths spans a wider range, can reach much higher values and shows a linear relationship with the Ca content. Several heterococcolithophore species tend to form separate clusters according to their Mg and Ca values. Within each cluster, there were no consistent differences in the Mg/Ca ratios of specimens sampled at different temperatures or seasons, suggesting that using the Mg/Ca ratio as a paleothermometer may be problematic. Our findings could have implications for the interpretation of the fossil record because Mg-rich calcite dissolves more easily.

We examine the large-scale distribution patterns of the nano- and microphytoplankton collected from 145 oceanic stations, at 3 m depth, the 20% light level and the depth of the subsurface chlorophyll maximum, during the Malaspina-2010 Expedition (December 2010-July 2011), which covered 15 biogeographical provinces across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, between 35°N and 40°S. In general, the water column was stratified, the surface layers were nutrient-poor and the nano- and microplankton (hereafter phytoplankton, for simplicity, although it included also heterotrophic protists) community was dominated by dinoflagellates, other flagellates and coccolithophores, while the contribution of diatoms was only important in zones with shallow nutriclines such as the equatorial upwelling regions. We applied a principal component analysis to the correlation matrix among the abundances (after logarithmic transform) of the 76 most frequent taxa to synthesize the information contained in the phytoplankton data set. The main trends of variability identified consisted of: 1) A contrast between the community composition of the upper and the lower parts of the euphotic zone, expressed respectively by positive or negative scores of the first principal component, which was positively correlated with taxa such as the dinoflagellates Oxytoxum minutum and Scrippsiella spp., and the coccolithophores Discosphaera tubifera and Syracosphaera pulchra (HOL and HET), and negatively correlated with taxa like Ophiaster hydroideus (coccolithophore) and several diatoms, 2) a general abundance gradient between phytoplankton-rich regions with high abundances of dinoflagellate, coccolithophore and ciliate taxa, and phytoplankton-poor regions (second principal component), 3) differences in dominant phytoplankton and ciliate taxa among the Atlantic, the Indian and the Pacific oceans (third principal component) and 4) the occurrence of a diatom-dominated assemblage (the fourth principal component assemblage), including several pennate taxa, Planktoniella sol, Hemiaulus hauckii and Pseudo-nitzschia spp., in the divergence regions. Our findings indicate that consistent assemblages of co-occurring phytoplankton taxa can be identified and that their distribution is best explained by a combination in different degrees of both environmental and historical influences.

Students on the Advertising and Design course of the Industrial Design Engineering degree took part in an educational experience that consisted of creating a poster to advertise a handicraft workshop organised to raise funds for NGO X. This project benefited all the agents involved: the university students developed teamwork and cooperation skills, and social awareness; the school students developed their sense of solidarity, collaboration and responsibility; and the teachers from different stages of education learned through the exchange of educational views and perspectives. Finally NGO X benefited from the media impact and the funding raised through the project.

Teniendo en cuenta lo costoso que resulta mantener programas de fidelización de clientes, es necesario conocer qué aspectos del servicio de la empresa son los que realmente valora el cliente, para dedicarles mayor esfuerzo y poder potenciarlos. Enmarcado en la corriente del marketing relacional, el objetivo del presente trabajo es estudiar el proceso de formación de la lealtad por parte de los consumidores en un entorno de servicios. Se utiliza para ello un modelo teórico originario de la psicología social (Fishbein y Ajzen, 1975) con la intención de lograr una mejor comprensión de los procesos psicológicos que llevan a un individuo a volver a comprar al mismo proveedor. Se realizaron 200 encuestas personales a clientes de entidades financieras, y se utilizaron modelos de ecuaciones estructurales para contrastar las relaciones planteadas. La aportación de este trabajo es el de proponer un modelo de comportamiento de lealtad del consumidor en el que se pueden identificar los elementos de juicio que utiliza el cliente, y que van a dar como resultado un comportamiento de lealtad por parte de este. El modelo propuesto ayudará a identificar los aspectos, tanto cognitivos como emocionales, que son decisivos para el consumidor. Los aspectos cognitivos han resultado ser cruciales a la hora de determinar la lealtad final del cliente. Sin embargo, los aspectos emocionales y la repercusión social se han perfilado como elementos muy valorados por el consumidor final.

La importancia socioeconómica adquirida en los últimos años en España y en otros países europeos por el emergente mercado de las personas mayores hace necesario el estudio de sus particularidades como consumidores. Los cambios operados durante el proceso del envejecimiento ejercen una influencia en la percepción del fenómeno publicitario y, por ende, en la actitud manifestada ante el anuncio. El estudio en las personas mayores de los antecedentes de la actitud ante el anuncio y sus consecuencias en el contexto del modelo de mediación dual es el propósito del análisis de este estudio. Se describirá cómo se producen los mismos y se demostrá la validez del modelo de mediación dual como explicativo de las respuestas otorgadas por las personas mayores ante la publicidad.

An experimental study was carried out to investigate whether two potential predators such as Oxyrrhis marina (phagotrophic dinoflagellate) and Acartia margalefi (Copepoda: Calanoida) had different responses when feeding on toxic (Karlodinium sp.-strain CSIC1-) or non-toxic (Gymnodinium sp1) dinoflagellates with a similar shape and size. Both prey were cultured at different N/P ratios (balanced N/P = 15, and P-limited N/P > 15) to test whether P-limitation conditions could lead to depressed grazing rates or have other effects on the predators. Both predators ingested the non-toxic Gymnodinium sp1, and low or non-ingestion rates were observed when incubated with Karlodinium sp. The dinoflagellate O. marina did not graze at all on Karlodinium sp. at N/P > 15 and very little at NP = 15, as its net growth rates were always negative when feeding on Karlodinium sp. cultured under P-limitation conditions. A. margalefi had lower ingestion rates when feeding on Karlodinium sp. grown at N/P = 15 than when feeding on Gymnodinium sp1, and did not graze on P-limited Karlodinium sp. Nevertheless, feeding on Karlodinium sp. grown under N/P =15 or N/P > 15 did not have any paralyzing or lethal effect on A. margalefi after 24 h. Finally, a direct effect on the viability of A. margalefi eggs was detected when healthy eggs were incubated for 5 days in the presence of Karlodinium sp. grown under N/P =15 or N/P > 15, producing a decrease in viability of 20% and 60% respectively.

Many ecologically important chemical transformations in the ocean are controlled by biochemical enzyme reactions in plankton. Nitrogenase regulates the transformation of N2 to ammonium in some cyanobacteria and serves as the entryway for N2 into the ocean biosphere. Nitrate reductase controls the reduction of NO3 to NO2 and hence new production in phytoplankton. The respiratory electron transfer system in all organisms links the carbon oxidation reactions of intermediary metabolism with the reduction of oxygen in respiration. Rubisco controls the fixation of CO2 into organic matter in phytoplankton and thus is the major entry point of carbon into the oceanic biosphere. In addition to these, there are the enzymes that control CO2 production, NH4 excretion and the fluxes of phosphate. Some of these enzymes have been recognized and researched by marine scientists in the last thirty years. However, until recently the kinetic principles of enzyme control have not been exploited to formulate accurate mathematical equations of the controlling physiological expressions. Were such expressions available they would increase our power to predict the rates of chemical transformations in the extracellular environment of microbial populations whether this extracellular environment is culture media or the ocean. Here we formulate from the principles of bisubstrate enzyme kinetics, mathematical expressions for the processes of NO3 reduction, O2 consumption, N2 fixation, total nitrogen uptake.

A coccolithophore which is referred to a new genus Picarola gen. nov. and described as a new species Picarola margalefii sp. nov., has been observed from the NW Mediterranean. The description of the new species is based on Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) observations. The coccoliths of Picarola margalefii sp. nov. are muroliths that have a narrow high rim and a central area with a cross and an elongate four-sided central process. Energy dispersive X-ray microanalyses confirmed their calcareous nature. The relation between the new genus and the genera Papposphaera Tangen, Vexillarius Jordan et Chamberlain, and Turrilithus Jordan et al., is discussed. The coccolithophore Picarola margalefii gen. et sp. nov., is dedicated to Dr. Ramon Margalef.

In baroclinic fronts, jets and eddies, potential vorticity, P = (V + f) / D, connects horizontal motions of planetary vorticity, f, and relative vorticity, V, to vertical transport through increases and decreases of the water column height, D. In this paper we present evidence that positive changes in relative vorticity of the SW flowing Catalan Current and meandering of the coastal jet follow the 500 m isobath and are associated with topographic steering by offshore canyons. Generally, positive relative vorticity is a result of cyclonic torque that generates cyclonic flow causing the water column to upwell since both P and the volume of the flow are conserved. With coastal jets that flow over abrupt topographies, such as deep canyons, D increases and flow must take on a cyclonic circulation, favoring upwelling conditions. In the case of a westward flowing current, we would expect the flow to acquire a cyclonic vorticity upstream of the canyon but to enter at the canyon obliquely (Cushman-Roisin, 1994) causing downwelling. Upwelling in meandering coastal jets can also occur when horizontal streamlines diverge, unable to adjust to relative vorticity changes, and fluid parcels near the edge of the front separate. Using pycnocline thickness as an indicator of D, we show that deep canyons stretch the water column causing cyclonic meandering (positive relative vorticity), upstream of the canyon during the FRONTS cruises 1991 to 1993. This phenomena has been shown to cause upwelling upstream of meander troughs (Onken, 1992) which in this case would mean upstream of canyons. We hypothesize that the increased relative vorticity, associated with upwelling in the pycnocline, fuels episodic primary production across the front accounting for more than 30% of the new production in this coastal zone.

The Mediterranean Sea is a marine biodiversity hot spot. Here we combined an extensive literature analysis with expert opinions to update publicly available estimates of major taxa in this marine ecosystem and to revise and update several species lists. We also assessed overall spatial and temporal patterns of species diversity and identified major changes and threats. Our results listed approximately 17,000 marine species occurring in the Mediterranean Sea. However, our estimates of marine diversity are still incomplete as yet-undescribed species will be added in the future. Diversity for microbes is substantially underestimated, and the deep-sea areas and portions of the southern and eastern region are still poorly known. In addition, the invasion of alien species is a crucial factor that will continue to change the biodiversity of the Mediterranean, mainly in its eastern basin that can spread rapidly northwards and westwards due to the warming of the Mediterranean Sea. Spatial patterns showed a general decrease in biodiversity from northwestern to southeastern regions following a gradient of production, with some exceptions and caution due to gaps in our knowledge of the biota along the southern and eastern rims. Biodiversity was also generally higher in coastal areas and continental shelves, and decreases with depth. Temporal trends indicated that overexploitation and habitat loss have been the main human drivers of historical changes in biodiversity. At present, habitat loss and degradation, followed by fishing impacts, pollution, climate change, eutrophication, and the establishment of alien species are the most important threats and affect the greatest number of taxonomic groups. All these impacts are expected to grow in importance in the future, especially climate change and habitat degradation. The spatial identification of hot spots highlighted the ecological importance of most of the western Mediterranean shelves (and in particular, the Strait of Gibraltar and the adjacent Alboran Sea), western African coast, the Adriatic, and the Aegean Sea, which show high concentrations of endangered, threatened, or vulnerable species. The Levantine Basin, severely impacted by the invasion of species, is endangered as well. This abstract has been translated to other languages (File S1).