Trait-based approaches to community structure are increasingly used in terrestrial ecology. We show that such an approach, augmented by a mechanistic analysis of trade-offs among functional traits, can be successfully used to explain community composition of marine phytoplankton along environmental gradients. Our analysis of literature on major functional traits in phytoplankton, such as parame...

In a series of continuous culture experiments involving N-limited growth of the chrysophyte Pavlova lutheri (Mono) I found that large deviations in cellular C : N : P ratios from the Redfield ratio of 106 : 16 : 1 occurred only as a function of low relative growth rate and not of low light intensity. By contrast, light-limited phy-toplankton in continuous culture can attain the Redfield chemica...

The Amundsen Sea Polynya is characterized by large phytoplankton blooms, which makes this region disproportionately important relative to its size for the biogeochemistry of the Southern Ocean. In situ data on phytoplankton are limited, which is problematic given recent reports of sustained change in the Amundsen Sea. During two field expeditions to the Amundsen Sea during austral summer 2010–2...

The colloidal organic matter (COM) was isolated from the exudates of three cultured phytoplonkters, namely chlophyte nanoflagellate Tetraselmis sp., diatom Chaetoceros socialis and dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum, Gulf Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea). isolation COM performed by ultrafiltration with molecular weight cut-off membranes 5 kDa final desalinisation dialysis. composition character...

This paper deals with the analysis of phytoplankton composition and abundance from four sampling stations at the polymictic system, Rinc6n del Bonete water reservoir in Uruguay. Sampling data were obtained in 4 seasonal periods between February and November 1993. A hundred and twenty-four taxa were identified, where Aulacoseira granulata (Ehrenb.) Simon., A. granulata var. angustissima (Muller)...

Chlorophyll (Chl) is widely taken as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, despite well-known variations in Chl:C:biomass ratios an acclimative response to changing environmental conditions. For the sake of simplicity and computational efficiency, many large scale biogeochemical models ignore this flexibility, compromising their ability capture dynamics. Here we evaluate modelling approaches diffe...