Ecological Control of Subtropical Nutrient Concentrations
story by Helen Hill and Stephanie Dutkiewicz.
Figure 1: Multiple-Resource Experiment. (top) Emergent biogeographical provinces, defined by most dominant species, reminiscent of Longhurst (1995). (bottom) Biogeography of four major functional groups: (i) Diatom-analogs (red), (ii) other large phytoplankton (orange), (iii)Prochlorococcus-analogs (green), and (iv) other small phytoplankton (yellow-green).
In this article we spotlight recent work by Darwin Project team members Stephanie Dutkiewicz, Mick Follows and Jason Bragg, who have been examining the utility of resource control theory to interpret the relationships between organisms and resources in a global coupled physical-biogeochemistry-ecosystem model built around MITgcm.
The team find that in regions of low seasonality, resource competition theory (Tilman, ‘77) not only anticipates the competitive outcome amongst organisms but also provides a quantitative diagnostic of ecological control of nutrient concentrations. DFB’s sensitivity experiments clearly indicate control on the ambient nutrient by phytoplankton physiology as predicted by the theory. Read the rest of this entry »
