A new paper and a report from two ASLO sessions disuss the links between ecology and behavior of plankton and large scale oceanic processes, and how these links are important for understanding the impacts of climate change.
In February 2014 and again in February 2015, in Hawaii and Granada, respectively, Thomas Kiørboe and Susanne Menden-Deuer organized ASLO symposium sessions to discuss how one can understand the ecology and behavior of the small aquatic organisms that govern most of the biological processes in the ocean, and how one can link individual behaviors and ecology to larger-scale processes. The key features of the marine environment place constraints on the ecology and evolution of plankton. Understanding these constraints is critical in developing a mechanistic understanding and predictive capacity of how planktonic ecosystems function, render their capacities in terms of biogeochemical cycling and trophic transfer, and how planktonic communities might respond to changing climate conditions.
The report consists of a series of papers organized in a themed session of Journal of Plankton Research; see it here.
And the session is introduced by a Horizon paper:
Susanne Menden-Deuer and Thomas Kiørboe (2016) Small bugs with a big impact: linking plankton ecology with ecosystem processes. J. Plankton Res. 38: 1036-1043. You can find the paper here.