Phytoplankton biogeography and community stability in the ocean.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite enormous environmental variability linked to glacial/interglacial climates of the Pleistocene, we have recently shown that marine diatom communities evolved slowly through gradual changes over the past 1.5 million years. Identifying the causes of this ecological stability is key for understanding the mechanisms that control the tempo and mode of community evolution.

Methodology/principal findings

If community assembly were controlled by local environmental selection rather than dispersal, environmental perturbations would change community composition, yet, this could revert once environmental conditions returned to previous-like states. We analyzed phytoplankton community composition across >10(4) km latitudinal transects in the Atlantic Ocean and show tha

SUBMITTER: Cermeno P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2848864 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature