Understanding the assembly of phytoplankton in relation to the trophic spectrum:: where are we now?

An overview of the eleventh IAP Workshop is presented. Although significant progress has been made in the recognition of the factors governing species selection at differing trophic levels, it is recognised that the ultimate influences of species composition are precedent and stochasticity. No individual species is selected uniquely by a given combination of environmental conditions, although there are functional and morphological traits which pre-adapt some species above others to function preferentially in either oligotrophic or eutrophic conditions. With this in mind, a new set of rules of community assembly is offered.