Niell, F. Xavier

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Scientia Marina 86(3)September 2022, e043, Barcelona (Spain)ISSN-L: 0214-8358ObituaryMiquel Alcaraz (1945-2022)Si em mor,que el cant siga ja realitat,Si em mor,que les esperances siguen fetsi que d’altres continuenel que nosaltres continuem.(Raimon, 1964)If I die,may the song be a reality,If I die,may hopes be fulfilledand may others continue withthe work we continue.(Raimon, 1964)Prof. Miquel Alcaraz passed away on 30 April 2022. He was a world-renowned marine zooplanktologist. We first met on the tram that we often took together on our way to the University of Barcelona. Suddenly, one day around October 1964, we started talking and I have the impression that we kept talking until, a few days before his death, he called me to say goodbye.Alcaraz was born in Barcelona in 1945 in a family of nine siblings. He had to take on a variety of jobs from the age of 14 to contribute to his family’s income. This probably helped him to obtain a close perspective on everyday reality and people’s problems. He was a great conversationalist, and this was a very important aspect of his life, because it led him to connect with people and to make friends everywhere. His facility for communication generated a positive environment around him.We studied Biology together at the University of Barcelona from 1964 to 1969. Alcaraz had excellent scientific mentors. He learned zooplankton taxono-my with Francisco Vives at the Institute of Fisheries Research (IIP) in Barcelona. Under the direction of Ramon Margalef at the IIP and the University of Bar-celona, he completed his doctorate on the species-spe-2 • F.X. NiellSCI. MAR. 86(3), September 2022, e043. ISSN-L 0214-8358cific segregation of copepods of the genus Acartia in estuarine environments with strong hydrographic gra-dients (Alcaraz 1977). Margalef was, I am sure, a fer-tile source of research suggestions for him, and Alcaraz undoubtedly played out Margalef’s ideas to perfection when they were working together at the IIP in Barce-lona. While working on his PhD, Alcaraz learned re-gional and chemical oceanography at the IIP in Vigo, where he spent almost four years, mainly interacting with Fernando Fraga. Later on, as a tenured researcher at the IIP in Barcelona, he made a major contribution to several studies on feeding, nutrition, movement and energetics of copepods with Rudy Strickler from the University of Wisconsin and Gustav Paffenhöfer from the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (Alcaraz et al. 1980, Paffenhöfer et al 1982, Alcaraz and Strick-ler 1988). Miquel and his colleagues had fun tether-ing copepods to a dynamometer using a dog’s hair and filming their movement while taking physiological measurements. These copepods and the dog, of course, became film stars in a famous experiment that amazed the scientific community of copepodologists.Influenced by his brother Félix, who was a sculptor, Miquel also developed great artistic skills that surprised those of us who knew him. In his research work and in his paintings, he showed three essential character-istics in approaching his objects of study and interest. Firstly, he was extremely curious. Secondly, when he observed, he did so with depth, with attention to detail. Thirdly, he was able to retain in his memory everything he had seen, heard and felt. He had a systemic scien-tific approach to thinking based on his great ability to classify the facts that he observed, to relate these facts to cause-effect relationships, and to compare different facts and processes until he was able to reach a synthet-ic insight. He then tested this vision with experimental designs that were usually innovative, imaginative and surprising. With these principles of action, formulating hypotheses to promote future research seemed to be easy and immediate. His critical capacity was subtle and thorough. I shall mention one of his studies, name-ly the criticism of the Metabolic Theory of Ecology and its limitation when it was applied to the study of processes such as respiration and excretion of nitrogen and phosphorus in high-latitude planktonic crustaceans (Alcaraz 2016), an excellent study that I recommend for educational purposes in basic research.In my view, Alcaraz showed a dual preference when choosing research topics. First, I presume Miquel was influenced by the literature of adventure and great expe-ditions: the ocean seen as the best scenario for infinite adventures. He admired Hackel, Humboldt, Banks and Darwin, among many other expeditioners, oceanogra-phers and polar and tropical travellers. During his ca-reer he conducted large-scale oceanographic research in the seas he had always read or dreamed about. He worked in the Arctic (Alcaraz et al. 2010, Alcaraz et al. 2013, Duarte et al. 2012), Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (Alcaraz et al. 1998, Alcaraz et al. 2014), and in the Mediterranean (Calbet et al. 1996, Calbet et al. 2001, Alcaraz et al. 2007a, Alcaraz et al. 2016). His adventurous and artistic spirits became almost satiated during the second Malaspina circumnavigation expedi-tion in 2010, on which he was invited as a scientist and the graphic chronicler of the cruise! Second, Miquel was interested in the small things, and hence the dual-ity in comparison with large-scale oceanography. This interest was related to his main working tool: the stere-oscopic microscope. He wanted to see what went on at the scale of individual plankton organisms, the result-ing population dynamics and interspecific variability.In 1997, Alcaraz carried out an assessment of the importance of turbulence in the behaviour of cope-pods (Alcaraz 1997). This article reviewed a fruitful research line to show the effects of turbulence on small organisms at a time when such studies were not yet mainstream. He and other colleagues developed several methods (Alcaraz et al. 1989, Saiz et al. 1992) for stud-ying the effects of small-scale turbulence in the labo-ratory. He published papers on the explicit influence of turbulence on grazing behaviour and metabolism (Alcaraz et al. 2007b), on development and growth time (Saiz and Alcaraz 1991), on feeding time related to gross growth efficiency (Alcaraz et al. 1989), and even on the heartbeat frequency of small zooplankton crustaceans (Alcaraz et al. 1994).With the turn of the century, Alcaraz looked more intently at community level variables, namely produc-tion, respiration and stoichiometry changes within the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus (Alcaraz et al. 2002, Alcaraz et al. 2010). At that time of his carrier, a scientific cycle was completed. Al-caraz’s research had evolved through three phases: an early, mainly descriptive phase in which he carried out extensive research in various geographical areas; then a mainly experimental phase in the laboratory; and, clos-ing the loop, a phase of linking the incidence of mi-croscale phenomena to biogeochemistry at the regional level. All these stages were coherently supported by the common concept that turbulence at small scales is key to understanding processes at larger scales.My impression is that Miquel Alcaraz lived intense-ly, enjoying the discovery of small things and remem-bering what he had seen before as if it were the first time he had experienced it. When I was with him, he filled the room with his wit, anecdotes and conversa-tions on research into ecology, cinema, travel and many other topics.I thank Miquel’s wife, Francesca Burgueño (“Paqui”), and Francesc Peters, Enric Saiz, Albert Cal-bet Celia Marrasé and Marta Estrada for helping me confirm some information. I beg your forgiveness if this obituary ended up too personal. I must confess that I have always felt Miquel’s was a parallel life to my own, as a young man, during our lives and especially during this last year, when, together with Paqui and his daughter Marta, he bravely faced his illness with great dedication, despite moments of pain and deep discom-fort. Miquel Alcaraz was a unique person with a strong personality characterized by humour and drive, and an unusually extensive knowledge on the most varied sub-jects. We miss him greatly, but we are fortunate to have his scientific and artistic legacy.SCI. MAR. 86(3), September 2022, e043. ISSN-L 0214-8358Obituary • 3REFERENCESAlcaraz M. 1977. Ecología, competencia y segregación de especies congenéricas de copépodos Acartia. PhD Thesis. University of Barcelona.Alcaraz M. 1997. Copepods under turbulence: Grazing, behavior and metabolic rates. Sci. Mar. 61: 177-195.Alcaraz M. 2016. Marine zooplankton and the Metabolic Theory of Ecology: Is it a predictive tool? J. Plankton Res. 38: 762-770.https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbw012Alcaraz M., Almeda R., Calbet A., Saiz E., Duarte C. M., Lasternas S., Agustí S., Santiago R., Movilla J., Alonso A. 2010. The role of arctic zooplankton in biogeochemical cycles: Respiration and excretion of ammonia and phosphate during summer. Polar Biol. 33: 1719-1731.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-010-0789-9Alcaraz M., Almeda R., Duarte C. M., Horstkotte B., Lasternas S., Agustí S. 2014. Changes in the C, N, and P cycles by the pre-dicted salps-krill shift in the southern ocean. Frontiers Mar. Sci. 1: 45.https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2014.00045Alcaraz M., Almeda R., Saiz E., Calbet A., Duarte C. M., Agustí S., Santiago R., Alonso A. 2013. Effects of temperature on the metabolic stoichiometry of Arctic zooplankton. Biogeosciences 10: 689-697.https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-689-2013Alcaraz M., Calbet A., Estrada M., Marrasé C., Saiz E., Trepat I. 2007a. Physical control of zooplankton communities in the Cat-alan Sea. Prog. Oceanogr. 74: 294-312.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2007.04.003Alcaraz M., Calbet A., Isari S., Irigoien X., Trepat I., Saiz E. 2016. Variability of mesozooplankton biomass and individual size in a coast-offshore transect in the Catalan Sea: relationships with chlorophyll a and hydrographic features. Sci. Mar. 80: 79-87.https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.04353.15AAlcaraz M., Estrada M., Marrasé C. 1989. Interaction between tur-bulence and zooplankton in laboratory microcosms. Proceed-ings of the 21st EMBS. 14-19 Sept. 1986. Gdansk. Published by the Polish Academy of Sciences-Institute of Oceanology. 191-204.Alcaraz M., Marrasé C., Peters F., Arin L., Malits A. 2002. Effects of turbulence conditions on the balance between production and respiration in marine planktonic communities. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 242: 63-71.https://doi.org/10.3354/meps242063Alcaraz M., Paffenhöfer G.A., Strickler J.R. 1980. Catching the algae: a first account of visual observations on filter-feeding calanoids. In: W. C. Kerfoot (ed) Evolution and ecology of zo-oplankton communities. The Univ. Press of New England, pp. 241-248.Alcaraz M., Saiz E., and Calbet A. 1994. Small‐scale turbulence and zooplankton metabolism: Effects of turbulence on heartbeat rates of planktonic crustaceans. Limnol. Oceanogr. 39: 1465-1470.https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1994.39.6.1465Alcaraz M., Saiz E., Calbet A. 2007b. Centropages behaviour: Swimming and vertical migration. Prog. Oceanogr. 72: 121-136.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2007.01.001Alcaraz M., Saiz E., Fernandez J. A., Trepat I., Figueiras F., Calbet A., Bautista B. 1998. Antarctic zooplankton metabolism: Car-bon requirements and ammonium excretion of salps and crusta-cean zooplankton in the vicinity of the Bransfield Strait during January 1994. J. Mar. Syst. 17: 347-359.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-7963(98)00048-7Alcaraz M., Strickler J.R. 1988. Locomotion in copepods: pattern of movements and energetics of Cyclops. Hydrobiologia 167-168: 409-414.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00026333Calbet A., Alcaraz M., Saiz E., Estrada M., Trepat, I. 1996. Plank-tonic herbivorous food webs in the Catalan Sea (NW Medi-terranean): Temporal variability and comparison of indices of phyto-zooplankton coupling based on state variables and rate processes. J. Plankton Res. 18: 2329-2347.https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/18.12.2329Calbet A., Garrido S., Saiz E., Alcaraz M., Duarte C. M. 2001. An-nual zooplankton succession in coastal NW Mediterranean wa-ters: The importance of the smaller size fractions. J. Plankton Res. 23: 319-331.https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/23.3.319Duarte C.M., Agustí S., Wassmann P., Arrieta J.M., Alcaraz M., Coello A., Marbà N., Hendriks I.E., Holding J., García-Zaran-dona I., Kritzberg E., Vaqué D. 2012. Tipping elements in the Arctic marine ecosystem. Ambio 41: 44-55.https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0224-7Paffenhöfer G.A., Strickler J.R., Alcaraz M. 1982. Suspension-feed-ing by herbivorous calanoid copepods: A cinematographic study. Mar. Biol. 67: 193-199.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401285Saiz E., Alcaraz M. 1991. Effects of small-scale turbulence on development time and growth of Acartia grani (Copepoda: Calanoida). J. Plankton Res. 13: 873-883.https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/13.4.873Saiz E., Alcaraz M., Paffenhöfer G.A. 1992. Effects of small-scale turbulence on feeding rate and gross-growth efficiency of three Acartia species (Copepoda: Calanoida). J. Plankton Res. 14: 1085-1097.https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/14.8.1085F. Xavier NiellEmeritus Professor, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain

Miquel Alcaraz (1945-2022)

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Miquel Alcaraz (1945-2022)

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