A mechanistic field investigation of the physiological response of phytoplankton to past fluctuations in surface water carbonate chemistry

该博士研究生的目标是利用地表水饱和状态（不同冰期-间冰期旋回）对比时期的地质记录，探索在已知地表水碳酸盐化学发生变化的时期，这些关键初级生产者的不同物种之间的生理反应之间的机制关系。通过关注最近的时代，我们对海洋系统的碳酸盐化学有了最好的限制，并且可以获得生产的主要信号，而不是保存的套印。目的是将现有的和新的技术结合起来，产生钙化（仅是球石藻）和光合效率（硅藻和球石藻）的综合记录，并假设种群结构和大小主导碳的输出，绘制这些浮游植物的大小随时间分布变化的图表。

The goal of this PhD studentship is to take advantage of the geological record at times of contrasting surface water saturation state (different glacial-interglacial cycles) to probe the mechanistic relationship between the physiological response across different species of these key primary producers for periods when carbonate chemistry of surface waters is known to have changed. By focusing on the more recent times, we have the best constraint on the carbonate chemistry of the ocean system, and can obtain a primary signal of production rather than an overprint of preservation. The aim is to couple established and novel techniques to generate combined records of calcification (coccolithophores only) and photosynthetic efficiency (diatoms and coccolithophores), and assuming that the population structure and size dominates the export of carbon, to chart the size distribution variations of those phytoplankton through time.