Phytoplankton Traits, Functional Groups and Community Organization: A Synthesis

浮游植物占全球初级生产力的一半，它们的生物量和群落组成对全球碳和其他生物地球化学循环和生态系统功能有重大影响。解释浮游植物种群的全球分布模式和预测浮游植物群落在人为环境变化下将如何重组，需要了解确定浮游植物物种生态位的各种生态生理特征。在这个项目中，研究人员将汇集一个基于查询的数据库，其中包括不同的浮游植物特征，如细胞/菌落大小、生长速度、资源获取和捕食者回避特征等。所有可用的物种和菌株的数据都将包括在内。他们将使用该数据库来回答浮游植物生态学中的基本问题，例如：1)哪些性状表现出权衡(成对和超越)，它们的形状是什么？2)哪些性状与细胞/身体大小异速生长？根据第一性原理得出的标度指数可以预测吗？异速生长尺度作为简化真实生物的复杂特征空间的一种方式的潜在限制是什么？3)浮游植物的主要功能/分类类群之间的特征差异是什么，分类/系统发育对特定功能特征的约束程度有多大？4)海洋和淡水类群之间的特征分布是否存在差异？研究人员还将使用该数据库，以适应动力学方法为基础，对浮游植物群落组织和演化的新模型进行参数化。他们将使用这些模型来探索在给定生理约束和生态相互作用的情况下，不同环境情景下群落结构是如何出现的。还将研究不同空间和时间尺度上元素化学计量、大小结构和官能团分布的变化。该项目的更广泛影响将使科学界受益，并提供广泛的教育经验。研究人员将建立一个浮游植物各种特征的数据库，供广大科学界使用。该数据库将用于将浮游植物功能组的模型参数化，并探索不同环境条件下的群落组织机制，包括全球变化情景。通过应用一般生态学原理和新的生态信息学和建模工具来回答关于浮游植物群落和生物海洋学的基本问题，该项目将跨越跨学科的边界，因此应该促进我们对水生生态系统功能的理解。该项目包括一名研究生和一名博士后的培训机会。此外，当地学校的教师将被邀请在夏季与调查人员合作，开发关于浮游植物生态和全球变化的探究式教育模块，其中将包括该项目的结果。该项目的成果将通过在涉及生态、海洋学和生物地球化学领域的各种期刊上的出版物进行传播。

Phytoplankton account for half of global primary productivity and their biomass and community composition significantly impact global carbon and other biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem functioning. Explaining patterns of global distributions of phytoplankton groups and predicting how phytoplankton communities will re-organize under anthropogenic environmental change requires knowledge of diverse eco-physiological traits defining ecological niches of phytoplankton species. In this project, the investigators will assemble a query-based database of diverse phytoplankton traits such as cell/colony size, growth rates, resource acquisition and predator avoidance traits, among others. Data for all available species and strains will be included. They will use the database to answer fundamental questions in phytoplankton ecology such as: 1) what traits exhibit trade-offs (pairwise and beyond) and what shapes are they? 2) What traits scale allometrically with cell/body size? Can scaling exponents from first principles be predicted? What are potential limits to allometric scaling as a way of simplifying the complex trait space that characterizes real organisms? 3) What are trait differences among major functional/taxonomic groups of phytoplankton and how much does taxonomy/phylogeny constrain particular functional traits? 4) Are there differences in trait distributions between marine and freshwater groups? The investigators will also use the database to parameterize novel models of phytoplankton community organization and evolution based on adaptive dynamics approaches. They will use the models to explore how community structure emerges under different environmental scenarios, given physiological constraints and ecological interactions. Changes in elemental stoichiometry, size structure and functional group distributions at different spatial and temporal scales will also be examined. The broader impacts of the project will benefit the scientific community as well as provide broad educational experiences. The investigators will produce a database of a diverse set of phytoplankton traits that will be made available to the wide scientific community. The database will be used to parameterize models of phytoplankton functional groups and explore mechanisms of community organization under different environmental conditions, including global change scenarios. By applying general ecological principles and novel ecoinformatics and modeling tools to answer fundamental questions about phytoplankton communities and biological oceanography, this project will span the interdisciplinary boundaries and should, therefore, advance our understanding of aquatic ecosystem functioning. The project includes training opportunties for a graduate student and a postdoc. In addition, teachers from local schools will be invited to work with the investigators in the summer to develop inquiry-based educational modules on phytoplankton ecology and global change that will include findings from this project. The results of this project will be disseminated through publications in a wide range of journals covering ecological, oceanographic and biogeochemical fields.