Cell Size Decrease and Altered Size Structure of Phytoplankton Constrain Ecosystem Functioning in the Middle Danube River Over Multiple Decades.

ABSTRACT: Reduced body size is among the universal ecological responses to global warming. Our knowledge on how altered body size affects ecosystem functioning in ectothermic aquatic organisms is still limited. We analysed trends in the cell size structure of phytoplankton in the middle Danube River over a 34-year period at multiple levels: (1) average cell size of assemblages (ACS), (2) within the centric diatom community and (3) in the dominant centric diatom taxon: Stephanodiscus. We asked whether global warming and human impacts affected the average cell size of phytoplankton. Also, whether the altered size structure affected how chlorophyll-a, as an ecosystem functioning measure, relates to the ACS of phytoplankton. The cell size of phytoplankton decreased significantly at all org

SUBMITTER: Abonyi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7497449 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature