Journal
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
Volume 16, Issue 3, Pages 1137-1144Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01960.x
Keywords
allometric relationships; cell abundance; cell size; North Atlantic; ocean warming; phytoplankton; picophytoplankton; temperature
Funding
- VARIPLACA [REN2001-0345/MAR]
- PERPLAN [CTM2006-04854/MAR]
- Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia
- Spanish Ministry of Education and Science
- Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans
- Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program
- EU [212085]
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The macroecological relationships among marine phytoplankton total cell density, community size structure and temperature have lacked a theoretical explanation. The tiniest members of this planktonic group comprise cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae smaller than 2 mu m in diameter, collectively known as picophytoplankton. We combine here two ecological rules, the temperature-size relationship with the allometric size-scaling of population abundance to explain a remarkably consistent pattern of increasing picophytoplankton biomass with temperature over the -0.6 to 22 degrees C range in a merged dataset obtained in the eastern and western temperate North Atlantic Ocean across a diverse range of environmental conditions. Our results show that temperature alone was able to explain 73% of the variance in the relative contribution of small cells to total phytoplankton biomass regardless of differences in trophic status or inorganic nutrient loading. Our analysis predicts a gradual shift toward smaller primary producers in a warmer ocean. Because the fate of photosynthesized organic carbon largely depends on phytoplankton size, we anticipate future alterations in the functioning of oceanic ecosystems.
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