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MEBL in the meeting of the European Geoscience Union (Vienna, Austria)
April 2018
As it has been customary year after year, the capital of Austria hosted one of the most important events for Earth’s scientists of many areas (Biogeochemistry, Geophysics, Oceanography, etc…).
During almost a week, up to 4.776 talks and 11.128 posters were presented place in this spectacular, useful and rigorous conference. Of course, our laboratory could not miss the chance to update and share the most recent insights with other colleagues.
Three members of our research team, Prof. Alfonso Corzo, Dr. Miguel Lara and the PhD student Sara Haro flew to Vienna to attend the EGU 2018 General Assembly from the 8-13 April 2018. Presentations covered several aspects of the response of microphytobenthos to light and tidal conditions: Potential changes in the photosynthetic efficiency, the transitional effects of sediment desiccation and an innovative model of self-shading were the three topics exposed.
More info and a downloadable version of the abstracts are linked here:
Effects of sediment desiccation (Oral presentation)
Noche de los investigadores 2017
Once more we were happy to join the rest of our colleagues from the University of Cádiz on an activity organised by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit of our university within the framework of the European Researcher’s Night. This time we set up camp in the old town of Cadiz with all our gear. Microphytobenthos and oxygen microsensors, Winogradsky columns, fiddler crabs, Nereis worms, and our own hand-made bacteria. We also had lots of plasticine for the kids to create their own bacteria in Petri dishes and pencils for them to draw our “Secret life in the sediment drawing”. Until next time.
Our plasticine microphytobenthos Petri dish… (microorganisms not in scale obviously!)
Sokratis explains the content of our workshop in this promotional video (in Spanish)
Sara in Denmark
September 2017
Sara Haro has stayed for 3 months in the Marine Biology Laboratory in Helsingør (University of Copenhagen), within the research group Microenviromental Ecology lead by Prof. Michael Kuhl. Sara has received training in both microsensor (oxygen and temperature) and microprobes (irradiance scalar and reflectance) measurements. She has carried out experiments to determine the importance of radiative energy budgets in microbial mats under different levels of irradiance and tidal conditions. Results are expected soon!
Oxygen measurements with a microsensor on a microbial mat.
Three new PhD’s
July was a busy month. Three PhD students from our lab defended their theses. Julio, Eddy and JuanLu defended their theses working on different subjects of aquatic biogeochemistry. We wish them all the best for their future endeavours.
The three new doctors of our lab (from left: Julio, JuanLu and Eddy)
EPS and diatoms
The last research paper on bacteria degrading extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) produced by microalgae, published recently in Frontiers in Microbiology by our group in collaboration with researchers from the University of Essex, has attracted the attention of the media. In a small report, our PhD student Julio Bohórquez explains (in spanish) what the more relevant findings of this study are.
Oceanographic cruise in the Pacific
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”.
Emilio (fourth from the left) with members from the cruise
Annual sampling is completed
In May, our research group finished a quarterly sampling in two transects conducted over one year. Aim of the study is to estimate the contribution of microphytobenthic production to the total primary production in the inner Cadiz Bay. Each transect has five sampling points, distributed along the intertidal zone. Sediment cores were collected by sediment sampler and were maintained in aquaria with sea water under constant irradiance. Microphytobenthic primary production was measured using oxygen microsensor. In addition, numerous samples (chlorophyll, molecular biology, bacterial abundance, extracellular polymeric substances,microbial community composition etc) were preserved for future analysis.
Sediment core with seagrass
At the V International Symposium of Marine Sciences
From 20th to 22th last July, our PhD student Sara Soria attended the V International Symposium of Marine Sciences at University of Alicante (Spain). She presented a poster titled “Microbial communities are coupled only in the dry season in a tropical estuary, Costa Rica“. The study focused on the distribution and abundance of phytoplankton and bacteria along the tropical estuary of the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica, one of the most productive estuaries of the world and an important fisheries area for Costa Rica.
Strong gradients of salinity and nutrients exist along the estuary whose intensity depends on season (rainy/dry). These interactions determine the fate of microbially transformed organic carbon and thus affect the productivity of the system. Furthermore, these complex interactions vary depending on biological and environmental factors. This information is crucial to manage effectively tropical estuaries, some of the most productive systems worldwide, which are under increased human pressure.
