Niche theory suggests that the realized niche occupied by an organism in the field is a subset of the fundamental niche space of the organism, absent additional biotic and abiotic factors. Though often assumed, this discrepancy is rarely tested for specific organisms, and could act as a source of error in model predictions of biogeographical shifts resulting from temperature change which assume niche theory constraints. Here, we quantify the difference between fundamental and realized temperature niches for four dominant ecotypes of Prochlorococcus, including eMED4, eMIT9312, eMIT9313, and eNATL2A, and ask whether the realized temperature niches of each ecotype vary across ocean basins. The realized niches for the four ecotypes are, on average, 3.84 C AE 1.18 C colder (mean AE SD across all ocean basins and ecotypes) and 2.15 C AE 1.89 C wider than the labmeasured fundamental niches. When divided into four ocean regions-North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, and South Pacific-we find that the realized temperature niche optimum for a given ecotype compared to the fundamental temperature niche optimum differs across regions by as much as 7.93 C, while the niche width can differ by up to 9.48 C. Colder and wider realized niches may be a result of the metabolic risk associated with living in variable environments when the mean temperature is too close to the optimal temperature for growth or due to physical processes such as dispersal. The strong differences in temperature niches across ocean basins suggest that unresolved genetic diversity within ecotypes, local adaptation, and variable interactive ecological and environmental factors are likely to be important in shaping Prochlorococcus realized temperature niches.

It is well known that variable resource supply can allow competitors to coexist on a single limiting resource, and this is one mechanism that may explain the maintenance of diversity in paradoxically speciose communities. Ecosystems experience fluctuations in resource supply on a range of timescales, but we have a poor understanding of how multiple frequencies of resource supply affect the maintenance of diversity and community structure. Here we explore this question using a model of phytoplankton competition for a limiting nutrient, parameterized using empirical tradeoffs between rapid growth, nutrient storage capacity and nutrient uptake affinity. Compared to a single frequency of nutrient supply, we find that multiple frequencies of nutrient supply increase functional diversity, by permitting the coexistence of strategies adapted to different frequencies of supply. Species richness is also promoted by multiple modes of nutrient supply, but not as consistently as functional diversity. Although this model is parameterized for phytoplankton, the fundamental dynamics and tradeoffs likely occur in a variety of ecosystems. Our results suggest that the spectrum of temporal variation driving communities should be further investigated in the context of the maintenance of diversity and the functional composition of communities under different environmental regimes.