Elena Litchman

TL;DR: The essential components of trait-based approaches to phytoplankton ecology are summarized and mathematical techniques for integrating traits into measures of growth and fitness and predicting how community structure varies along environmental gradients are described.

TL;DR: The results show that the canonical Redfield N:P ratio of 16 is not a universal biochemical optimum, but instead represents an average of species-specific N:F ratios, which will vary from 8.2 to 45.0, depending on the ecological conditions.

TL;DR: It is shown thatrait-based approaches to community structure, augmented by a mechanistic analysis of trade-offs among functional traits, can be successfully used to explain community composition of marine phytoplankton along environmental gradients.

TL;DR: It is found that rising temperatures this century will cause poleward shifts in species’ thermal niches and a sharp decline in tropical phytoplankton diversity in the absence of an evolutionary response.

TL;DR: This study provides physiological datasets fundamental to understanding functional responses of phytoplankton growth rates to temperature that can be used to parameterise global ocean model projections of environmental change and to provide initial insights into the magnitude of regional biogeographic change in ocean biota in the coming decades.