Ecological balancing act
Phytoplankton are single-celled organisms that serve as the base of the marine food web and provide half the oxygen we breathe on Earth. They also play a key role in global climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere and injecting it deep into the oceans.Scientists study phytoplankton to understand how the tiny plants help transport elements like carbon through the environment. Although they understand much of what phytoplankton do, less is understood about why particular plankton live in particular environments and what maintains the diversity of phytoplankton. Previous research has suggested that more diverse ecosystems may be more efficient at utilizing resources, meaning that the diversity of phytoplankton could be important for regulating the cycles of carbon and other elements in the ocean. But scientists need a better understanding of that diversity before they can understand how much carbon the ocean ultimately removes from the atmosphere.Researchers from MIT’s cross-disciplinary...