Answer:
The cause of phytoplankton blooms has traditionally been attributed to seasonal changes in ‘bottom-up’ environmental factors controlling phytoplankton division rates, such as nutrients and light 3,4,5,6,7. However, seasonal changes in phytoplankton biomass (P) represented by the biomass-specific net rate of change (r) always reflect the interplay between two dominant terms, the phytoplankton division rate (μ) and the sum of all loss (l) rates (e.g., grazing, viruses, sinking):
Explanation:
The photosynthetic production of organic carbon by marine phytoplankton plays a key role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, such that without this biological uptake it is estimated that present day atmospheric CO2 concentrations would be 200 ppm (50%) higher1. Phytoplankton blooms in the temperate and polar oceans play a disproportionally large role in ocean CO2 uptake, as well as being critical ecological events to which the migration patterns of marine animals, ranging from zooplankton to whales, have evolved2. The cause of phytoplankton blooms has traditionally been attributed to seasonal changes in ‘bottom-up’ environmental factors controlling phytoplankton division rates, such as nutrients and light3,4,5,6,7. However, seasonal changes in phytoplankton biomass (P) represented by the biomass-specific net rate of change (r) always reflect the interplay between two dominant terms, the phytoplankton division rate (μ) and the sum of all loss (l) rates (e.g., grazing, viruses, sinking):
r=1PdPdt=μ−
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