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Towards Understanding the Molecular Ecology of Phytoplankton Photosynthesis

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Molecular Ecology of Aquatic Microbes

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIG,volume 38))

Abstract

Many of the basic questions related to the magnitude, control, and interspecific variation of phytoplankton productivity confronting aquatic ecologists during the last decade of the twentieth century are virtually identical to those posed in the first three decades (Mills 1989). For example, determining which factor limits community production, let alone the growth rates of the component species, is a time-honoured endeavour (Johnstone 1911; Harvey 1926; Riley 1965; Ryther 1969; Eppley 1980; Barber 1992; Joint 1995). The contemporary discussions about the importance of nutrient fluxes, trace metals, light, temperature and grazers in regulating the abundance and distribution of primary production, phytoplankton biomass and individual species are incarnations of historical debates dating to the inception of aquatic science (Cooper 1935; Harvey 1957; Banse 1992; Martin 1992). That these issues remain, for the most part, unresolved, bespeaks profoundly of our inability to quantitatively relate ecophysiological responses to population genetics and vice versa. The general problem may be rephrased as a search for a way of predicting the ecological manifestation of the evolutionary concept of “fitness”. Even given knowledge of all the genomes of all the organisms in the world, this Gordian knot cannot be cut by reductionist experimentation (Gillespie 1991), yet that approach is so ingrained in our training as scientists that virtually no other is explored.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA

    Paul G. Falkowski

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  1. Paul G. Falkowski
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  1. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Natural Environment Research Council, Prospect Place, The Hoe, PL1 3DH, Plymouth, UK

    Ian Joint

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Falkowski, P.G. (1995). Towards Understanding the Molecular Ecology of Phytoplankton Photosynthesis. In: Joint, I. (eds) Molecular Ecology of Aquatic Microbes. NATO ASI Series, vol 38. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79923-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79923-5_2

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