J. Magdalena Santana-Casiano

• Professor
• Professor at University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The CO2–carbonate system dynamics in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (NASPG) were evaluated between 2009 and 2019. Data were collected aboard eight summer cruises through the Climate and Ocean: Variability, Predictability and Change (CLIVAR) 59.5° N section. The ocean acidification (OA) patterns and the reduction in the saturation state of calcite...

The surface physical and Marine Carbonate System (MCS) properties were assessed along the western boundary of the Mediterranean Sea. An unprecedent high-resolution observation-based dataset spanning 5 years (2019–2024) was built through automatically underway monitoring by a Volunteer Observing Ship (VOS). The MCS dynamics were strongly modulated b...

The exchange of trace gases between the atmosphere and the ocean plays a key role in the Earth’s climate. Fluxes at the air-sea interface are affected mainly by wind blowing over the ocean and seawater temperature and salinity changes. This study aimed to quantify the use of CO $$_{2}$$ 2 partial pressure (pCO $$_{2}$$ 2 ) measurements at different...

The CO2-carbonate system dynamics in the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre (NASPG) were evaluated between 2009 and 2019. Data was collected aboard eight summer cruises through the CLIVAR 59.5º N section. The Ocean Acidification (OA) patterns and the reduction in the saturation state of calcite (ΩCa) and aragonite (ΩArag) in response to the increasing an...

The addition of carbonate minerals to seawater through an artificial ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) process increases the concentrations of hydroxide, bicarbonate, and carbonate ions. This leads to changes in the pH and the buffering capacity of the seawater. Consequently, OAE could have relevant effects on marine organisms and in the speciatio...

Ocean acidification, caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere into the ocean, ranks among the most critical consequences of climate change for marine ecosystems. Most studies have examined pH and CO2 trends in the open ocean through oceanic time-series research. The analysis in coastal waters, particularly in island envi...

The Arctic Ocean is a unique biogeochemical environment characterized by low salinity surface waters, extensive sea-ice coverage, high riverine inputs, large shelf extension and the long residence time of deep waters. These characteristics determine the distribution of dissolved bio-essential trace metals, such as copper (Cu), and the dissolved org...

The addition of carbonate minerals to seawater through an artificial Ocean Alkalinization Enhancement (OAE) process increases the concentrations of hydroxide, bicarbonate, and carbonate ions. This leads to changes in the pH and the buffering capacity of the seawater. Consequently, OAE could have relevant effects on marine organisms and in the speci...

Using 25 years of data from the North-East Atlantic Ocean at the ESTOC site, we confirm the surface ocean is actively absorbing carbon emissions caused by human activities and undergoing ocean acidification. The carbon dioxide is also increasing in the subsurface and deepest waters. Seawater salinity normalized inorganic carbon (NCT), fugacity of C...

Since Tagoro volcano erupted in 2011, several impacts have been associated to the volcano formation process, some of which are still present to date. This chapter is a review of the marine environmental perturbations caused by Tagoro volcano as a new geological structure, but thoroughly onto the partly annihilated benthic and demersal pre-existing...

The shallow Tagoro submarine volcano monitoring represents a unique opportunity not only for improving our sparse understanding of submarine volcanic processes in specific scientific fields as physical and chemical oceanography or marine geology but also its interactions over the marine biology in one of the richest marine ecosystems in Europe. Thi...

The shallow submarine volcano Tagoro releases high amounts of inorganic nutrients (N, P, Si, Fe) into the surrounding waters. These emissions have been intensely monitored during both the eruptive stage (October 2011–March 2012) and the post-eruptive hydrothermal stage (March 2012—ongoing). The obtained seven-years dataset comprises over 3300 water...

This work is focused on the effect of lethal and sub-lethal copper (Cu) concentrations on the free amino acid and polyphenol production by the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum (P. tricornutum) after 12, 18, and 21 days of exposure. The concentrations of 10 amino acids (arginine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, histidine, lysine, methionine, pr...

The CO2 system, anthropogenic carbon (Cant) inventory and air-sea CO2 fluxes (FCO2) were analysed in the archipelagic waters of the Macaronesian region. The (sub)surface data were collected during POS533 (February and March, 2019) in coastal areas leeward of Cape Verde (CV), Canary Islands (CA) and Madeira (MA) and through the vessel track. The CO2...

Three freshwater microalgae ( Spirogyra sp ., Cosmarium sp . , and Cosmarium blytii ) collected from several locations in Gran Canaria have been studied to explore their potential as a novel source of bioactive compounds for biotechnological applications. Soluble carbohydrates were quantified after extraction with 3M HCl at 100ºC, ranging from 35.8...

The shallow, near-shore submarine volcano Tagoro erupted in October 2011 at the Mar de las Calmas marine reserve, south of El Hierro island. The injection of lava into the ocean had its strongest episode during November 2011 and lasted until March 2012. During this time, in situ measurements of dissolved oxygen were carried out, using a continuous...

Ocean acidification impacts the iron (Fe) biogeochemistry both by its redox and its complexation reactions. This has a direct effect on the ecosystems due to Fe being an essential micronutrient. Polyphenols exudated by marine microorganisms can complex Fe(III), modifying the Fe(II) oxidation rates as well as promoting the reduction of Fe(III) to Fe...

Dissolved iron (dFe) and copper (dCu), the concentration and the conditional stability constants of organic binding ligands (LFe, LCu, log KcondFe3+L and log KcondCu2+L) were studied in the surface coastal waters of the Macaronesia region (Cape Verde, Canary Islands, and Madeira) using competitive ligand exchange-adsorptive cathodic stripping volta...

The iron(II) oxidation kinetic process was studied at 25 stations in coastal seawater of the Macaronesia region (9 around Cape Verde, 11 around the Canary Islands, and 5 around Madeira). In a physicochemical context, experiments were carried out to study the pseudo-first-order oxidation rate constant (k', min-1) over a range of pH (7.8, 7.9, 8.0, a...

The seasonal and spatial variability of the CO2 system and air-sea fluxes were studied in surface waters of the Strait of Gibraltar between February 2019 and March 2021. High-resolution data was collected by a surface ocean observation platform aboard a volunteer observing ship. The CO2 system was strongly influenced by temperature and salinity flu...

Phenolic compounds excreted by marine microalgae are part of the ligand pool in natural waters. The effect of the polyphenol gentisic acid (GA; 2,5 dihydroxybenzoic acid) on the Fe(III) reduction as a function of organic ligand concentration (100 nM – 1000 nM) and the pH (7.00–8.01) was investigated in seawater. Major seawater ions interactions wit...

We present a new natural carbon dioxide (CO2) system located off the southern coast of the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain). Like CO2 seeps, these CO2 submarine groundwater discharges (SGDs) can be used as an analogue to study the effects of ocean acidification (OA) on the marine realm. With this aim, we present the chemical characterizat...

The seasonal and spatial variability of the CO2 system parameters and CO2 air-sea exchange were studied in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean between the northwest African coastal upwelling and the oligotrophic open-ocean waters of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Data was collected aboard a volunteer observing ship from February 2019 to February 202...

One of the recently recognized main sources of iron to the deep ocean inventory is the hydrothermal activity associated with mid-ocean ridges. Little is known about the oxidation kinetics of iron(II) within these environments, especially the dependence on physico-chemical parameters such as temperature (T), pH, particle size-fractionation and the e...

Anthropogenic emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere have modified the carbon cycle for more than 2 centuries. As the ocean stores most of the carbon on our planet, there is an important task in unraveling the natural and anthropogenic processes that drive the carbon cycle at different spatial and temporal scales. We contribute to this by designing a g...

We present a new natural carbon dioxide (CO2) system located off the southern coast of La Palma Island (Canary Islands, Spain). Like others CO2 seeps, these seeps can be used as an analogue to study the effects of ocean acidification (OA) on the marine realm. With this aim, we present an accurate chemical characterization of the seeps system carbon...

The speciation of dissolved iron (DFe) in the ocean is widely assumed to consist almost exclusively of Fe(III)-ligand complexes. Yet in most aqueous environments a poorly defined fraction of DFe also exists as Fe(II), the speciation of which is uncertain. Here we deploy flow injection analysis to measure in situ Fe(II) concentrations during a serie...

Abstract. Anthropogenic emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere have modified the carbon cycle for more than two centuries. As the ocean stores most of the carbon on our planet, there is an important task in unraveling the natural and anthropogenic processes that drive the carbon cycle at different spatial and temporal scales. We contribute to this by d...

Tagoro, the shallow submarine volcano that erupted south of El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain) in October 2011, has been intensely monitored for over 7 years, from the early eruptive stage to the current degassing stage characterized by moderate hydrothermal activity. Here, we present a detailed study of the emissions of inorganic macronutrients (NO...

The Canary Islands are a volcanic alignment of seven islands that conforms an archipelago located in the northwestern part of the still active Nubian (African) tectonic plate. The archipelago showed its latest volcanic activity south off El Hierro Island in 2011, resulting in the formation of the newest underwater volcano, known as Tagoro, for the...

Human activity is generating an excess of atmospheric CO2, creating what we know as ocean acidification, which it is predicted to causes important changes in marine ecosystems. Until recently, most of the research on this phenomenon has been carried out under laboratory conditions, with small-scales, using few representative species and live cycle...

On October 10th 2011 a shallow submarine volcanic eruption south of El Hierro (Canary Islands) gave rise to drastic physical and chemical changes in the water column. The eruptive phase of Tagoro submarine volcano affected a wide area south and north of the island, while the degasification stage affected a smaller area surrounding the volcano and q...

The Surface Ocean CO2 NETwork (SOCONET) and atmospheric Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) CO2 measurements from ships and buoys focus on the operational aspects of measurements of CO2 in both the ocean surface and atmospheric MBLs. The goal is to provide accurate pCO2 data to within 2 micro atmosphere (μatm) for surface ocean and 0.2 parts per million (p...

The redox interaction between iron and copper was experimentally studied in UV-seawater (UV-SW) and a kinetic model was developed to simultaneously reproduce the coupled Fe and Cu redox chemistry. The kinetic model included a combination of chemical reactions and their equilibrium and rate constants. The interactions between Cu(I) and Fe(II), Cu(I)...

Tagoro, the youngest submarine volcano of the Canary Islands, erupted in 2011 South of El Hierro Island. Pre-existing sea floor and inhabiting biological communities were buried by the newly erupted material, promoting the appearance of new habitats. The present study pursues to describe the first metazoans colonizing different new habitats formed...

Tagoro, the most recently discovered shallow submarine volcano on the Canary Islands archipelago, Spain, has been studied from the beginning of its eruptive phase in October 2011 until November 2018. In March 2012, it became an active hydrothermal system involving a release of heat and gases that produce significant physical–chemical anomalies in t...

The speciation of dissolved iron (DFe) in the ocean is widely assumed to consist exclusively of Fe(III)-ligand complexes. Yet in most aqueous environments a poorly defined fraction of DFe also exists as Fe(II). Here we deploy flow injection 15 analysis to measure in-situ Fe(II) concentrations during a series of mesocosm/microcosm experiments in coa...

Iron is an essential micronutrient for phytoplankton and can limit primary production in the ocean. Fe chemistry is highly controlled by its interaction with organic complexes (>99%). It is still unknown which organic compounds produced by cells have the ability to bind Fe. Within the pool of organic ligands, polyphenols are known to be exudated by...

The potential effect of ocean acidification on the exudation of organic matter by phytoplankton and, consequently, on the iron redox chemistry is largely unknown. In this study, the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi was exposed to different pCO2 conditions (225–900 μatm), in order to determine the role of natural organic ligands on the Fe(II) oxid...

The Fe(II) oxidation rate was studied in different water masses present in the subarctic North Atlantic ocean along the 59.5° N transatlantic section. Temperature, pH, salinity and total organic carbon (TOC) in natural conditions, fixed temperature conditions and both fixed temperature and pH conditions, were considered in order to understand the c...

Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) formation constitutes an important mechanism for the export of macronutrients out of the Southern Ocean that fuels primary production in low latitudes. We used quality-controlled gridded data from five hydrographic cruises between 1990 and 2014 to examine decadal variability in nutrients and dissolved inorganic c...

The kinetics of Fe redox transformations are of crucial importance in determining the bioavailability of iron, due to inorganic Fe(II) and Fe weakly organic complexes are the most easily assimilated species by phytoplankton. The role played by the natural organic ligands excreted by the cyanobacteria Synecococcus PCC 7002 on the iron redox chemistr...

Several Fe-uptake mechanisms suggest the importance of the presence of certain organic ligands in phytoplankton exudates. Here, it has been studied how Synechococcus (strain PCC 7002) acclimates to Fe-bioavailability, comparing the growth and organic exudation under two different Fe regimes. These cyanobacteria were incubated in UV-treated seawater...

The variability in the extracellular release of organic ligands by Emiliania huxleyi under four different pCO2 scenarios (225, 350, 600 and 900 μatm), was determined. Growth in the batch cultures was promoted by enriching them only with major nutrients and low iron concentrations. No chelating agents were added to control metal speciation. During t...

El objetivo principal del proyecto “Physico-chemical, biological and geological study of an underwater volcano in a degassing stage: island of El Hierro”, (VULCANO-II, CTM2014-51837-R) es estudiar, desde un punto de vista totalmente multidisciplinar, la fase de desgasificación activa del único volcán submarino monitoreado desde su nacimiento en agu...

Pollution caused by heavy metals is one of the most serious environmental problems for society. Industrial activities increase the concentration of heavy metals such as Cu(II), Cd(II), Zn(II), Pb(II) and Ni(II) in aquatic systems and mainly in the fields of mechanics, electrics, electronics, tanning, galvanization, oil industries and mining. Biomag...

Over the past few decades, there has been an increase in the number of research studies focused on all aspects of the ecology, physiology, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, systematics and uses of algae. This chapter will provide an overview of the potential human health advantages associated with the use of algae as a source of high-v...

Coastal upwellings along the eastern margins of major ocean basins represent regions of large ecological and economic importance due to the high biological productivity. The role of these regions for the global carbon cycle makes them essential in addressing climate change. The physical forcing of upwelling processes that favor production in these...

The air-sea exchange of CO2, its distribution and trends in the South African continental shelf over 8 years (2005–2012) has been studied using data from 28 journeys of a volunteer observing ship (VOS). Sea water properties, strongly controlled by the oceanographic dynamic, showed a complex distribution pattern between Cape Town and Durban. Three d...

Coastal upwelling along the eastern margins of major ocean basins represent regions of large economic importance due to the high biological productivity. However, the physical forcing of upwelling processes that favor the production in these areas are being affected by global warming, which will modify the intensity of the upwelling and, consequent...

The eruptive process that took place in October 2011 in the submarine volcano Tagoro off the Island of El Hierro and the subsequent degasification stage, five months later, have increased the concentration of TdFe(II) (Total dissolved iron(II)) in the waters nearest to the volcanic edifice. In order to detect any variation in concentrations of TdFe...

Monitoring the Air-Sea pCO2 variability in the coastal areas is a priority due to the effect of the biological and biogeochemistry process on this process. The Northwestern Mediterranean Sea is an oligotrophic area in a semi-closed basin, therefore the changes on the surface waters properties take place faster than in other seas. This work focuses...

The Southern Ocean is the most important area of anthropogenic carbon (Cant) uptake in the world ocean, only rivalled in importance by the North Atlantic Ocean. Significant variability on decadal time-scales in the uptake of Cantin the Southern Ocean has been observed and modelled, likely with consequences for the interior ocean storage of Cantin t...

El Hierro is the youngest volcanic island of the Canary Archipelago (Figures 1 and 2). The islands were constructed in the Early Miocene as the African plate moved over a mantle hotspot. They show a general age progression from the easternmost islands (>20 Ma) toward El Hierro (<2 Ma). El Hierro is the emergent summit of a shield volcano that rises...

The residual hydrothermalism associated with submarine volcanoes, following an eruption event, plays an important role in the supply of CO2 to the ocean. The emitted CO2 increases the acidity of seawater. The submarine volcano of El Hierro, in its degasification stage, provided an excellent opportunity to study the effect of volcanic CO2 on the sea...

The oxidation rates (kapp ) of nanomolar levels of Fe(II) were studied in seawater enriched with nutrients (SWEN) in air saturated conditions. The nutrient effect (nitrate, phosphate and silicate), on the oxidation of Fe(II), was evaluated as a function of pH (7.2–8.2), temperature (5–35 °C) and salinity (10–37.09). The oxidation of Fe(II) was fast...

Long-term determination of carbon dioxide data is a priority requirement to ensure a realistic picture of how ocean seawater properties change as the result of atmospheric evolution. Due to the extreme daily and seasonal variability of the carbonate system characteristics, constant autonomous measurements are a necessity when seeking to provide tot...

An accurate quantification of the role of the ocean as source/sink of greenhouse gases (GHGs) requires to access the high-resolution of the GHG air–sea flux at the interface. In this paper we present a novel method to reconstruct maps of surface ocean partial pressure of CO2 ( pCO2) and air–sea CO2 fluxes at super resolution (4 km, i.e., 1/32° at t...

The present study investigates the phenolic profile of exudates and extracts of the green algae Dunaliella tertiolecta, harvested in natural seawater in the absence (control) and in the presence of Cu(II) (315 and 790 nmol L(-1)) and Fe(III) (900 nmol L(-1)) in order to identify and quantify the phenolic compounds produced under metallic stress con...

Submarine volcanic eruptions took place at the island El Hierro (Canary Islands) between October 2011 and March 2012. The event produced plumes of discoloured waters due to the discharge of volcanic matter, magmatic gases, and hydrothermal fluids. The expelled materials, which behaved like oceanic tracers, were detected from the site of the volcano...

The role played by the natural organic ligands excreted by the green algae Dunaliella tertiolecta on the Fe(II) oxidation rate constants was studied at different stage of growth. The concentration of dissolved organic carbon increased from 2.1 to 7.1 mgL-1 over time of culture. The oxidation kinetics of Fe(II) was studied at nanomolar levels and un...

On October 10 2011 an underwater eruption gave rise to a novel shallow submarine volcano south of the island of El Hierro, Canary Islands, Spain. During the eruption large quantities of mantle-derived gases, solutes and heat were released into the surrounding waters. In order to monitor the impact of the eruption on the marine ecosystem, periodic m...

Understanding and quantifying ocean–atmosphere exchanges of the long-lived greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) are important for understanding the global biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen in the context of ongoing global climate change. In this chapter we summarise our current state of knowledge r...

Sustained observations provide critically needed data and understanding not only about ocean warming and water cycle reorganization (e.g., salinity changes), ocean eutrophication, and ocean deoxygenation, but also about changes in ocean chemistry. As an example of changes in the global ocean carbon cycle, consistent changes in surface seawater CO2-...

The effect of exudates from Phaeodactylum tricornutum on the iron chemistry has been studied at pH 8.0 and 7.5 in seawater and seawater enrichment with the diatom exudates. At pH 8.0 the rate constant for the oxidation of Fe(II) decreased by 29% in the presence of the exudates, while at pH 7.5, the rate constant decreased by 56%. At the stationary...