This month, Dr. Emilio Garcia participated in an oceanographic cruise in the East Tropical North Pacific Oxygen Minimum Zone on board of the research vessel Oceanus. During 3 weeks, 13 researchers from different countries (USA, Denmark, Island, Austria, Mexico and Spain) and institutions worked together to investigate the microbial community and the biogeochemical processes of the vast anoxic waters of the north Pacific. Different aspects of microbial ecology and biogeochemistry were studied, going from aerobic respiration at the oxygenated photic layer to the different processes involved in the complex nitrogen cycling (denitrification, anammox, nitrification, anaerobic methane oxidation…) going on inside the so called “dead zones”.

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Emilio (fourth from the left) with members from the cruise