Some of them (NASE, NATR and SATL) were partially surveyed in two of the three cruises (NASE and NATR during Malaspina Legs 1 and 7; SATL during Malaspina Legs 1 and 2). At each sampling station, vertical profiles of water temperature and fluorescence were obtained from the surface to 300 m depth using a Conductivity–Temperature–Depth probe (CTDSea-Bird 911) attached to a rosette sampler equipped with 24 Niskin bottles.