The proportion of major elements in marine organic matter links cellular processes to global
nutrient, oxygen and carbon cycles. Differences in the C: N: P ratios of organic matter have …

Microbial communities are essential components of aquatic ecosystems through their
contribution to food web dynamics and biogeochemical processes. Aquatic microbial …

Heterotrophic nanoflagellates are the main consumers of bacteria and picophytoplankton in
the ocean and thus play a key role in ocean biogeochemistry. They are found in all major …

Phytoplankton physiology is dynamic and highly responsive to the environment.
Phytoplankton acclimate to changing environmental conditions by a complex reallocation of …

Trait-based approaches are an alternative to species-based approaches for functionally
linking individual organisms with community structure and dynamics. In the trait-based …

Trait-based ecology merges evolutionary with classical population and community ecology
and is a rapidly developing branch of ecology. It describes ecosystems as consisting of …

Terrestrial biosphere models typically abstract the immense diversity of vegetation forms and
functioning into a relatively small set of predefined semi-empirical plant functional types …

Trait-based approaches provide a mechanistic framework to understand and predict the
structure and functioning of microbial communities. Resource utilization traits and trade-offs …

Biogeochemical cycles in the ocean are strongly affected by the elemental stoichiometry (C:
N: P) of phytoplankton, which largely reflects their macromolecular content. A greater …

Understanding the interactions between the Earth's microbiome and the physical, chemical
and biological environment is a fundamental goal of microbial ecology. We describe a …