Modeling the combined effects of physiological flexibility and micro-scale variability for plankton ecosystem dynamics

Smith, S. Lan and Mandal, Sandip and Priyadarshi, Anupam and Chen, Bingzhang and Yamazaki, Hidekatsu; Cochran, J. Kirk and Bokuniewicz, Henry J. and Yager, Patricia L., eds. (2019) Modeling the combined effects of physiological flexibility and micro-scale variability for plankton ecosystem dynamics. In: Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences. Elsevier, pp. 527-535. ISBN 9780128130827 (https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.10955-8)

Full text not available in this repository.Request a copy

Abstract

Plankton are microscopic organisms that constitute the sustaining base of food chains in the ocean. Various models have been developed using equations to study their important roles in marine ecology and chemistry. Such models typically assume that plankton respond to changing environmental conditions according to simplistic response equations, and that they experience uniform local conditions. However, experiments and observations have revealed both of those assumptions to be false. We describe recent approaches for modeling the observed flexible physiological response and micro-scale heterogeneity of plankton and introduce preliminary findings concerning their combined effects on plankton ecosystem dynamics.