Search

The abundance of large marine dinoflagellates has declined in the North Sea since 1958. Although hypotheses have been proposed to explain this diminution (increasing temperature and wind), the mechanisms behind this pattern have thus far remained elusive. In this article, we study the long‐term changes in dinoflagellate biomass and biodiversity in relation to hydro‐climatic conditions and circulation within the North Atlantic. Our results show that the decline in biomass has paralleled an increase in biodiversity caused by a temperature‐induced northward movement of subtropical taxa along the European shelf‐edge, and facilitated by changes in oceanic circulation (subpolar gyre contraction). However, major changes in North Atlantic hydrodynamics in the 2010s (subpolar gyre expansion and low‐salinity anomaly) stopped this movement, which triggered a biodiversity collapse in the North Sea. Further, North Sea dinoflagellate biomass remained low because of warming. Our results, therefore, reveal that regional climate warming and changes in oceanic circulation strongly influenced shifts in dinoflagellate biomass and biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant phenological shifts induced by climate change are projected within the phytoplankton community. However, projections from current Earth System Models (ESMs) understandably rely on simplified community responses that do not consider evolutionary strategies manifested as various phenotypes and trait groups. Here, we use a species‐based modelling approach, combined with large‐scale plankton observations, to investigate past, contemporary and future phenological shifts in diatoms (grouped by their morphological traits) and dinoflagellates in three key areas of the North Atlantic Ocean (North Sea, North‐East Atlantic and Labrador Sea) from 1850 to 2100. Our study reveals that the three phytoplanktonic groups exhibit coherent and different shifts in phenology and abundance throughout the North Atlantic Ocean. The seasonal duration of large flattened (i.e. oblate) diatoms is predicted to shrink and their abundance to decline, whereas the phenology of slow‐sinking elongated (i.e. prolate) diatoms and of dinoflagellates is expected to expand and their abundance to rise, which may alter carbon export in this important sink region. The increase in prolates and dinoflagellates, two groups currently not considered in ESMs, may alleviate the negative influence of global climate change on oblates, which are responsible of massive peaks of biomass and carbon export in spring. We suggest that including prolates and dinoflagellates in models may improve our understanding of the influence of global climate change on the biological carbon cycle in the oceans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological niche sensu Hutchinson is defined as the set of environmental conditions allowing a species to grow, maintain, and reproduce. This conception of the niche, which is assimilated to a p‐dimensional hypervolume, with p representing all environmental variables, has been widely applied in ecology. However, displaying the niche hypervolume has proved challenging when more than three environmental dimensions are considered simultaneously. We propose a simple method (implemented in the specieschrom R package) that displays the full multidimensionality of the ecological niche of a species into a two‐dimensional space by means of a graphic we call species chromatogram. This method gives a graphical summary of the niche by representing together abundance gradients with respect to all environmental variables. A chromatogram enables niche optimums and breaths to be rapidly quantified, and when several chromatograms are examined (one per species), rapid comparisons can be made. From our chromatograms, we proposed a procedure that quantifies niche optimum and breadth as well as niche overlapping (index D) and the identification of the most discriminant combination of environmental variables. We apply these analyses on eight planktonic species collected by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey in the North Atlantic Ocean using 10 environmental variables. We display their full multidimensional niches and quantify their niche optimums and breadths along each dimension. We also compare our index D with other indices by means of hypervolume and dynRB R packages. By catching the full complexity of the niche, species chromatograms allow many different niche properties to be rapidly assessed and compared among species from niche optimums and breadths to the identification of the most relevant environmental parameters and the degree of niche overlapping among species. Species chromatograms may be seen as species' fingerprint and may also allow a better identification of the mechanisms involved in species assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual plankton succession has been investigated for many decades with hypotheses ranging from abiotic to biotic mechanisms being proposed to explain these recurrent patterns. Here, using data collected by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey and models originating from the MacroEcological Theory on the Arrangement of Life, we investigate Annual Phytoplankton Succession (APS) in the North Sea at a species level. Our results show that this phenomenon can be predicted well by models combining photosynthetically active radiation, temperature and macro-nutrients. Our findings suggest that APS originates from the interaction between species' ecological niches and the annual environmental fluctuations at a community level. We discuss our results in the context of traditional hypotheses formulated to explain this recurrent pattern in the marine field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plankton biodiversity is a key component of marine pelagic ecosystems. They are at the base of the food web, control the productivity of marine ecosystems, and provide many provisioning and regulating ecological services. It is therefore important to understand how plankton are organized in both space and time. Here, we use data of varying taxonomic resolution, collected by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey, to map phytoplankton and zooplankton biodiversity in the North Atlantic and its adjacent seas. We then decompose biodiversity into 24 species assemblages and investigate their spatial distribution using ecological units and ecoregions recently proposed. Finally, we propose a descriptive method, which we call the environmental chromatogram, to characterize the environmental signature of each plankton assemblage. The method is based on a graphic that identifies where species of an assemblage aggregate along an environmental gradient composed of multiple ecological dimensions. The decomposition of the biodiversity into species assemblages allows us to show (a) that most marine regions of the North Atlantic are composed of coenoclines (i.e., gradients of biocoenoses or communities) and (b) that the overlapping spatial distribution of assemblages is the result of their environmental signatures. It follows that neither the ecoregions nor the ecological units identified in the North Atlantic are characterized by a unique assemblage but instead by a mosaic of assemblages that overlap in many places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual plankton succession has been investigated for many decades with hypotheses ranging from abiotic to biotic mechanisms being proposed to explain these recurrent patterns. Here, using data collected by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey and models originating from the MacroEcological Theory on the Arrangement of Life, we investigate Annual Phytoplankton Succession (APS) in the North Sea at a species level. Our results show that this phenomenon can be predicted well by models combining photosynthetically active radiation, temperature and macro-nutrients. Our findings suggest that APS originates from the interaction between species' ecological niches and the annual environmental fluctuations at a community level. We discuss our results in the context of traditional hypotheses formulated to explain this recurrent pattern in the marine field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a paper entitled The paradox of the plankton , Hutchinson asked 'how it is possible for a number of species to coexist in a relatively isotropic or unstructured environment all competing for the same sorts of materials' (Hutchinson 1961 Am. Nat . 95 , 137-145 (doi:10.1086/282171)). Particularly relevant for phytoplankton, this paradox was based on two implicit, and perhaps naive, postulates, i.e. (i) that all plankton species have similar requirements and (ii) that the marine environment is relatively homogeneous in space and time. A number of hypotheses, based on purely theoretical or experimental studies, have been proposed to solve this conundrum, ranging from spatio-temporal environmental heterogeneity to biotic chaotic variability. Here, we characterize the ecological niche of 117 plankton species belonging to three different taxonomic groups and show that all species have a niche sufficiently distinct to ensure coexistence in a structured marine environment. We also provide evidence that pelagic habitats are, unsurprisingly, more diverse in space and time than Hutchinson imagined, the marine environment being neither unstructured nor stable in space and time. We, therefore, conclude that the niche theory, and its corollary the principle of competitive exclusion, apply as much for the plankton as for other forms of life, be they terrestrial or marine.