Global relationship between phytoplankton diversity and productivity in the ocean.

The shape of the productivity-diversity relationship (PDR) for marine phytoplankton has been suggested to be unimodal, that is, diversity peaking at intermediate levels of productivity. However, there are few observations and there has been little attempt to understand the mechanisms that would lead to such a shape for planktonic organisms. Here we use a marine ecosystem model together with the community assembly theory to explain the shape of the unimodal PDR we obtain at the global scale. The positive slope from low to intermediate productivity is due to grazer control with selective feeding, which leads to the predator-mediated coexistence of prey. The negative slope at high productivity is due to seasonal blooms of opportunist species that occur before they are regulated by grazers. The negative side is only unveiled when the temporal scale of the observation captures the transient dynamics, which are especially relevant at highly seasonal latitudes. Thus selective predation explains the positive side while transient competitive exclusion explains the negative side of the unimodal PDR curve. The phytoplankton community composition of the positive and negative sides is mostly dominated by slow-growing nutrient specialists and fast-growing nutrient opportunist species, respectively.

Weak response of oceanic dimethylsulfide to upper mixing shoaling induced by global warming.

The solar radiation dose in the oceanic upper mixed layer (SRD) has recently been identified as the main climatic force driving global dimethylsulfide (DMS) dynamics and seasonality. Because DMS is suggested to exert a cooling effect on the earth radiative budget through its involvement in the formation and optical properties of tropospheric clouds over the ocean, a positive relationship between DMS and the SRD supports the occurrence of a negative feedback between the oceanic biosphere and climate, as postulated 20 years ago. Such a natural feedback might partly counteract anthropogenic global warming through a shoaling of the mixed layer depth (MLD) and a consequent increase of the SRD and DMS concentrations and emission. By applying two globally derived DMS diagnostic models to global fields of MLD and chlorophyll simulated with an Ocean General Circulation Model coupled to a biogeochemistry model for a 50% increase of atmospheric CO(2) and an unperturbed control run, we have estimated the response of the DMS-producing pelagic ocean to global warming. Our results show a net global increase in surface DMS concentrations, especially in summer. This increase, however, is so weak (globally 1.2%) that it can hardly be relevant as compared with the radiative forcing of the increase of greenhouse gases. This contrasts with the seasonal variability of DMS (1000-2000% summer-to-winter ratio). We suggest that the "plankton-DMS-clouds-earth albedo feedback" hypothesis is less strong a long-term thermostatic system than a seasonal mechanism that contributes to regulate the solar radiation doses reaching the earth's biosphere.