Resource supply alone explains the variability of marine phytoplankton size structure

Marañón, Emilio; Cermeño, Pedro; Latasa, Mikel; Tadonléké, Rémy D.

doi:10.1002/lno.10138

Cited by 48 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(51 reference statements)

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“…This may be due to the prevailing influence of physical factors in the phytoplankton nutrient uptake. Our results agree with previous studies in marine systems where changes in resource supply alone have been demonstrated as sufficient to explain the variability of phytoplankton size structure (Marañón et al., ). In phytoplankton assemblages, smaller sizes are favoured at low nutrient availability due to the higher surface:volume ratio or lower resource requirements, whereas large algae are often (but see Jensen, Jeppesen, Olrik, & Kristensen, ) better competitors at high concentrations (Guidi et al., ; Litchman & Klausmeier, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

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Size‐based interactions across trophic levels in food webs of shallow Mediterranean lakes

et al. 2017

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Body size is a key trait of an organism which determines the dynamics of predator–prey interactions. Most empirical studies on the individual size distribution of the aquatic community have focused on the variations in body size of a single trophic level as a response to certain environmental variables or biotic factors. Few studies, however, have evaluated how individual size structure is altered simultaneously across interacting trophic levels and locations. Such comparative examinations of the size distribution in predator and prey communities may bring insight into the strength of the interactions between adjacent trophic levels. We assessed the potential predation effect of size‐structured predators (i.e. predation by individuals of different sizes) on prey size structure using data from 30 shallow Turkish lakes spanning over five latitudinal degrees. We correlated size diversity and size evenness of predator and prey assemblages across the planktonic food web after accounting for the confounding effects of temperature and resource availability which may also affect size structure. We expected to find a negative relationship between size diversity of predators and prey due to the enhanced strength of top‐down control with increasing predator size diversity. We also hypothesised that competitive interactions for resources in less productive systems would promote a higher size diversity. We further expected a shift towards reduced size diversity and evenness at high temperatures. In contrast to our hypothesis, we found a positive correlation between size structures of two interacting trophic levels of the planktonic food web; thus, highly size‐diverse fish assemblages were associated with highly size‐diverse zooplankton assemblages. The size evenness of fish and phytoplankton assemblages was negatively and positively related to temperature, respectively. Phytoplankton size diversity was only weakly predicted by the resource availability. Our results suggest that size structure within a trophic group may be controlled by the size structure at adjacent trophic levels, as well as by temperature and resource availability. The positive relationship between the size diversity of fish and zooplankton suggests that higher diversity of the resources drives a higher size diversity of consumers or vice versa, and these effects are beyond those mediated by taxonomic diversity. In contrast, the size diversity and size evenness of phytoplankton are mainly influenced by physical factors in this region and perhaps in warm shallow lakes in general.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…pulses of reproduction due to increased food availability, resulting in dominance of small individuals and low size diversity) (García‐Comas et al., ). Furthermore, resource availability may have a bigger effect on phytoplankton than in other trophic groups (Marañón, Cermeño, Latasa, & Tadonléké, ; Quintana et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size‐based interactions across trophic levels in food webs of shallow Mediterranean lakes

et al. 2017

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“…The data compilation of Marañón et al (2012) was re-analysed by López-Urrutia & Morán (2015) who found a nutrient-independent temperature effect: the proportion of picoplankton increased with temperature in the low-productivity subset ([chlorophyll a] <1 μg l −1 ) while the proportion of microplankton decreased with temperature in the high-productivity subset ([chlorophyll a] >2 μg l −1 ). However, in their reply Marañón et al (2015) showed that size was also correlated with resource supply within the subsets defined by chlorophyll a concentrations.…”

Section: Global Trends In the Ocean (1) Size Variation Assessed mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While many authors claim that the size-temperature trend is dominantly driven by a negative temperature-nutrient correlation (e.g. Marañón et al, 2015) others claim that there is an additional, direct temperature effect (e.g. López-Urrutia & Morán, (2015) strong limitation (N:P = 40:1); 5d, Peter & Sommer (2015) strong limitation (N:P = 4:1); 6a, Sommer et al (2015), low CO 2 ; 6b, Sommer et al (2015), high CO 2 .…”

Section: Direct Versus Indirect Mechanisms Of Size Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Do marine phytoplankton follow Bergmann's rule sensu lato?

et al. 2016

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Global warming has revitalized interest in the relationship between body size and temperature, proposed by Bergmann's rule 150 years ago, one of the oldest manifestations of a 'biogeography of traits'. We review biogeographic evidence, results from clonal cultures and recent micro-and mesocosm experiments with naturally mixed phytoplankton communities regarding the response of phytoplankton body size to temperature, either as a single factor or in combination with other factors such as grazing, nutrient limitation, and ocean acidification. Where possible, we also focus on the comparison between intraspecific size shifts and size shifts resulting from changes in species composition. Taken together, biogeographic evidence, community-level experiments and single-species experiments indicate that phytoplankton average cell sizes tend to become smaller in warmer waters, although temperature is not necessarily the proximate environmental factor driving size shifts. Indirect effects via nutrient supply and grazing are important and often dominate. In a substantial proportion of field studies, resource availability is seen as the only factor of relevance. Interspecific size effects are greater than intraspecific effects. Direct temperature effects tend to be exacerbated by indirect ones, if warming leads to intensified nutrient limitation or copepod grazing while ocean acidification tends to counteract the temperature effect on cell size in non-calcifying phytoplankton. We discuss the implications of the temperature-related size trends in a global-warming context, based on known functional traits associated with phytoplankton size. These are a higher affinity for nutrients of smaller cells, highest maximal growth rates of moderately small phytoplankton (ca. 10 2 μm 3 ), size-related sensitivities for different types of grazers, and impacts on sinking rates. For a phytoplankton community increasingly dominated by smaller algae we predict that: (i) a higher proportion of primary production will be respired within the microbial food web; (ii) a smaller share of primary production will be channeled to the classic phytoplankton -crustacean zooplankton -fish food chain, thus leading to decreased ecological efficiency from a fish-production point of view; (iii) a smaller share of primary production will be exported through sedimentation, thus leading to decreased efficiency of the biological carbon pump.

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“…Which relationship dominates in seas? The debate has continued for decades (e.g., Morán et al ; Hilligsøe et al ; Marañón et al , ; López‐Urrutia and Morán ). Note too, that there are several examples which do not follow these two classic relationships: some studies identify no effect of increasing resource availability on body size (e.g., Sprules and Munawar ; Cavender‐Bares et al ), and other studies show increasing or unchanging body sizes with increasing temperature (e.g., Rüger and Sommer ; Adams et al ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource availability affects temporal variation of phytoplankton size structure in the Kuroshio east of Taiwan

Lin

Sastri

et al. 2019

Limnology & Oceanography

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The on‐going discussion concerning how environmental factors determine phytoplankton size structure has centered around two hypotheses: (H1) The resource‐size relationship predicts that normalized biovolume size spectrum (NBSS) slopes for phytoplankton are progressively shallower with increasing resource availability and (H2) The temperature‐size relationship predicts that phytoplankton NBSS slopes steepen with increasing water temperature. To test these hypotheses, we examined 72 phytoplankton assemblage collections in the Kuroshio east of Taiwan. Total phytoplankton biomass was used as a proxy for resource availability instead of nutrients because nutrients are depleted and do not represent resource availability for oligotrophic seas. We found no significant relationship between NBSS slopes with temperature, providing little support for the temperature‐size rule. In contrast, a positive relationship between NBSS slopes and total biomass for most of the year lends general support to the resource‐size relationship, except during the winter and early spring. To explain this exception, we hypothesize that resource pulses occurring during the cold seasons are used more efficiently by small cells and promote faster growth of small relative to large phytoplankton because these pulses take place after a long period of resource depletion in oligotrophic seas; thus, the NBSS slopes become much steeper than would be expected from a positive resource‐size relationship. This deviation can be considered as nonsteady state in terms of phytoplankton size structure relative to resources. Nevertheless, we cannot rule out the possibility that grazing effects also play an important role in controlling phytoplankton size structure.

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Resource supply alone explains the variability of marine phytoplankton size structure

Cited by 48 publications

References 28 publications

Size‐based interactions across trophic levels in food webs of shallow Mediterranean lakes

Size‐based interactions across trophic levels in food webs of shallow Mediterranean lakes

Do marine phytoplankton follow Bergmann's rule sensu lato?

Resource availability affects temporal variation of phytoplankton size structure in the Kuroshio east of Taiwan

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