A large bloom of Prymnesium polylepis occurred in the Baltic Sea during the winter 2007-spring 2008. Based on numerous reports of strong allelopathic effects on phytoplankton exerted by P. polylepis and its toxicity to grazers, we hypothesized that during this period negative correlations will be observed between P. polylepis and (1) main phytoplankton groups contributing to the spring bloom (i...

Models of multiple potentially limiting nutrients currently employ either multiplicative or threshold formulations, neither of which has a sound mechanistic explanation. Despite experimental evidence that lack of P severely constrains N assimilation, this mechanism has not been considered for constructing models of multi-nutrient limitation. We construct a phytoplankton optimal growth model lin...

Understanding the mechanisms of phytoplankton community assembly is a fundamental issue of aquatic ecology. Here, we use field data from transitional (e.g. coastal lagoons) and coastal water environments to decode patterns of phytoplankton size distribution into organization and adaptive mechanisms. Transitional waters are characterized by higher resource availability and shallower well-mixed w...

Over the past decade, techniques have been presented to derive the community structure of phytoplankton at synoptic scales using satellite ocean-color data. There is a growing demand from the ecosystem modeling community to use these products for model evaluation and data assimilation. Yet, from the perspective of an ecosystem modeler these products are of limited use unless: (i) the phytoplank...

Phytoplankton occurrence and dynamics in rivers are mainly shaped by hydrophysical conditions and nutrient availability. Phytoplankton main structuring factors have been poorly studied in West African rivers, and this study was undertaken to identify these conditions in two tropical rivers that vary in size and human impact. For this, environmental variables and phytoplankton monthly samples we...

Introduction: Lakes are ecological systems that can integrate changes throughout their watersheds resulting from anthropogenic activity. Consequently, investigation of biological processes within lakes can elucidate the effects of watershed activity on lake health. Phytoplankton (i.e. suspended algae) the primary producers of pelagic systems – are a conduit through which watershed activity can ...

We analyze the predictions of a reaction advection di usion model to pinpoint the nec essary conditions for bloom development of sinking phytoplankton species in strati ed waters This reveals that there are two parameter windows that can sustain sinking phytoplankton a turbulence window and a thermocline depth window The two win dows are delimited by four critical parameters a minimal and maxim...

This study tests the hypothesis that the interspecific scaling of phytoplankton production and cell size in the field follows the 4-power scaling law. Published data of cell size and in situ, cellspecific carbon production rates by single phytoplankton species, collected in surface waters of lakes, rivers, estuaries and oceans, are reviewed. Across more than nine orders of magnitude in cell vol...

Viruses influence the ecology and diversity of phytoplankton in the ocean. Most studies of phytoplankton host-virus interactions have focused on bloom-forming species like Emiliania huxleyi or Phaeocystis spp. The role of viruses infecting phytoplankton that do not form conspicuous blooms have received less attention. Here we explore the dynamics of phytoplankton and algal viruses over several ...

Phytoplankton have attracted increasing attention in climate science due to their impacts on climate systems. A new generation of climate models can now provide estimates of future climate change, considering the biological feedbacks through the development of the coupled physical-ecosystem model. Here we present the geophysical impact of phytoplankton, which is often overlooked in future clima...