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Linking traits to species diversity and community structure in phytoplankton

  • SANTA ROSALIA 50 YEARS ON
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Abstract

In addition to answering Hutchinson’s question “Why are there so many species?”, we need to understand why certain species are found only under certain environmental conditions and not others. Trait-based approaches are being increasingly used in ecology to do just that: explain and predict species distributions along environmental gradients. These approaches can be successful in understanding the diversity and community structure of phytoplankton. Among major traits shaping phytoplankton distributions are resource utilization traits, morphological traits (with size being probably the most influential), grazer resistance traits, and temperature responses. We review these trait-based approaches and give examples of how trait data can explain species distributions in both freshwater and marine systems. We also outline new directions in trait-based approaches applied to phytoplankton such as looking simultaneously at trait and phylogenetic structure of phytoplankton communities and using adaptive dynamics models to predict trait evolution.

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Acknowledgments

This work was in part supported by the grants from the US National Science Foundation and the J.S. McDonnell Foundation to E.L. and C.A.K. We thank Luigi Naselli-Flores and Giampaolo Rossetti for inviting this contribution and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. This is Kellogg Biological Station contribution no. 1563.

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  1. W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI, 49060, USA

    Elena Litchman, Paula de Tezanos Pinto, Christopher A. Klausmeier & Mridul K. Thomas

  2. Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 1-15-1 Minami-dai Nakano, Tokyo, 164-8639, Japan

    Kohei Yoshiyama

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  1. Elena Litchman
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  2. Paula de Tezanos Pinto
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Correspondence to Elena Litchman.

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Guest editors: L. Naselli-Flores & G. Rossetti / Fifty years after the “Homage to Santa Rosalia”: Old and new paradigms on biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems

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Litchman, E., de Tezanos Pinto, P., Klausmeier, C.A. et al. Linking traits to species diversity and community structure in phytoplankton. Hydrobiologia 653, 15–28 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0341-5

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