Phytoplankton community structuring in the absence of resource-based competitive exclusion.

ABSTRACT: Under most natural marine conditions, phytoplankton cells suspended in the water column are too distantly spaced for direct competition for resources (i.e., overlapping cell boundary layers) to be a routine occurrence. Accordingly, resource-based competitive exclusion should be rare. In contrast, contemporary ecosystem models typically predict an exclusion of larger phytoplankton size classes under low-nutrient conditions, an outcome interpreted as reflecting the competitive advantage of small cells having much higher nutrient 'affinities' than larger cells. Here, we develop mechanistically-focused expressions for steady-state, nutrient-limited phytoplankton growth that are consistent with the discrete, distantly-spaced cells of natural populations. These expressions, when encompassed in a

SUBMITTER: Behrenfeld MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9481051 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature