Mechanisms shaping size structure and functional diversity of phytoplankton communities in the ocean

Scientific Reports
Esteban Acevedo-TrejosAgostino Merico

Abstract

The factors regulating phytoplankton community composition play a crucial role in structuring aquatic food webs. However, consensus is still lacking about the mechanisms underlying the observed biogeographical differences in cell size composition of phytoplankton communities. Here we use a trait-based model to disentangle these mechanisms in two contrasting regions of the Atlantic Ocean. In our model, the phytoplankton community can self-assemble based on a trade-off emerging from relationships between cell size and (1) nutrient uptake, (2) zooplankton grazing, and (3) phytoplankton sinking. Grazing 'pushes' the community towards larger cell sizes, whereas nutrient uptake and sinking 'pull' the community towards smaller cell sizes. We find that the stable environmental conditions of the tropics strongly balance these forces leading to persistently small cell sizes and reduced size diversity. In contrast, the seasonality of the temperate region causes the community to regularly reorganize via shifts in species composition and to exhibit, on average, bigger cell sizes and higher size diversity than in the tropics. Our results raise the importance of environmental variability as a key structuring mechanism of plankton communities ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 17, 2016·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Wei LiOsamu Nishimura
Jan 23, 2018·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Marina Pančić, Thomas Kiørboe
Jun 13, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Nicholas J Nidzieko
Aug 10, 2019·Frontiers in Microbiology·Catalina MenaRosa Balbín
May 14, 2017·Scientific Reports·Gianluca Dell'AquilaAlberto Amato
Oct 23, 2020·PloS One·Lisa Kathleen Eckford-Soper, Donald E Canfield

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