Work

The emergence of regularity and variability in marine ecosystems: the combined role of physics, chemistry and biology

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: Marine ecosystems play an integral role in the functioning of life on earth. To predict how they will respond to global changes, and to effectively manage and maintain services upon which humans rely, we must understand how biological processes at the cellular level generate macroscopic patterns in the oceans. Here, we discuss how physics and biogeochemistry influence and constrain marine ecosystem structure and function, and outline key regularities and patterns of variability that models should aim to reproduce. We identify unanswered questions regarding how size-dependent physiological and ecological processes are linked to turbulent mixing, dealing specifically with how size structure is related to mixing over a range of spatial scales and how it is linked to the fate of primary production in the sea.

Source: Scientia Marina

DOI: 10.3989/scimar.2011.75n4719

Authors: Ford Ballantyne IV, Oscar M.E. Schofield, Simon A. Levin

Institutions: University of Kansas, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Princeton University

Language: English

Topic: Marine Plankton and Biogeochemistry

Subfield: Oceanography

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Life below water

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W1978502988

FWCI: 0.411

Cites: 120

Cited by: 8

Related to: 10