ALBERT

Description: Allometric scaling rules have been classically used in plankton ecology to describe how the maximum ingestion rate ( I max ) under steady-state conditions changes with the body size of the consumer. Empirical and theoretical concerns, however, motivate a more accurate and mechanistic description of size–ingestion relations. Here, I propose to relate I max to the digestive surface area, which expresses the capacity in preprocessing and digesting food items. This surface area depends on both the body size and the optimal prey size of the consumer. The allometry in I max , hence, includes a second major variable which describes different feeding modes within a consumer size class. Species with a small optimal-prey-to-predator-size ratio and, thus, a small "internal" surface-to-volume ratio, as is typical for filter feeders, have large intra-body transport lengths and lower I max than raptorial-feeding species of the same body size. Digestive surface scaling tries to mechanistically accommodate feeding ecology, physiology and geometry. It does not explicitly resolve further possible factors affecting maximal ingestion such as nutritional quality. Still, digestive surface scaling explains the variability in published data compilations better than classical approaches when applied to the entire plankton size range. This is corroborated in further applications where the theory precisely fits anomalously steep scaling relations reported for heterotrophic nanoflagellates, ctenophores and a scyphomedusa. By introducing feeding mode and related morphological diversity into the size-dependency in ingestion rates, digestive surface scaling can be expected to improve the accuracy of size-based plankton models.

Description: The value of mechanistic ecosystem modelling has long been appreciated, and in connection with trait-based approaches it has recently stimulated a more process-based understanding of adaptive capacities and trade-offs. Notwithstanding recent advances, even sophisticated state-of-the-art models of plankton ecosystems, some of which include hundreds of idealized species, do not accurately represent the great biodiversity of plankton, or the associated flexible adaptive response of plankton communities. We build on previous reviews to suggest that it may be necessary to discard some common assumptions and try new approaches in order to construct models that can make new and testable predictions about the "adaptive capacity" of plankton ecosystems. Major challenges remain unresolved for modelling interacting communities of producers and consumers. Rather than the common approach of mixing and matching existing model components, each laden with its own legacy assumptions, we suggest that a judicious combination of innovative, mechanistic approaches that combine traits and trade-offs will likely better address such challenges.

Description: Timing and spatial distribution of phytoplankton blooms in coastal oceans are highly variable. The interactions of various biological and physical factors leading to the observed variability are complex and remain poorly understood. We present an example for distinct differences in the spatio-temporal chlorophyll a (CHL-a) distribution on an interannual scale, integrating high-frequency data from an autonomous measuring device (FerryBox), which operated on an alongshore route in the coastal German Bight (North Sea). While in one year the distribution of CHL-a was spatially homogeneous (2004), a bloom only developed in one part of the transect in the following spring period (2005). We use a one-dimensional Lagrangian particle tracking model, which operates along the mean current direction, combined with a NPZ-model to identify the mechanisms controlling the observed interannual bloom variability on the alongshore transect. Our results clearly indicate that in 2004 the local light climate determined the spatial and temporal dynamics of the spring bloom. In contrast, the import of a water mass with elevated CHL-a concentrations from the adjacent Southern Bight triggered the spring bloom in 2005. The inflow event did, however, not last long enough to spread the bloom into the eastern part of the study area, where high turbidity prevented local phytoplankton growth. The model identifies two interacting mechanisms, light climate and hydrodynamics, that controlled the alongshore dynamics. Especially the occurrence of a pronounced spring bloom despite unfavourable light conditions in 2005 underlines the need to carefully consider hydrodynamics to understand the dynamics of the plankton community in coastal environments.

Description: The redox succession in shallow marine sediments generally exhibits a predictable pattern. Pore water profiles from a back barrier tidal flat in the German Wadden Sea depart from the expected redox zoning. Instead, a sulfate minimum zone associated with a sulfate-methane-sulfate double interface and a distinct ammonium peak at 1.5 m below sea floor (mbsf) is displayed. Such evidence for significant degradation of organic matter (OM) in subsurface layers is challenging our understanding of tidal flat biogeochemistry as little is known about processes that relocate reactive OM into layers far distant from the sediment-water interface. The objectives of our model study were to identify possible mechanisms for the rapid transport of organic matter to subsurface layers that cause the reversed redox succession and to constrain several important biogeochemical control parameters. We compared two scenarios for OM transfer: rapid sedimentation and burial of OM as well as lateral advection of suspended POM. Using a diagenetic model, uncertain process parameters, in particular those connected to OM degradation and (vertical or lateral) transport, are systematically calibrated using field data. We found that both scenarios, advection and sedimentation, had solutions consistent with the observed pore water profiles. For this specific site, however, advective transport of particulate material had to be rejected since the reconstructed boundary conditions were rather improbable. In the alternative deposition set-up, model simulations suggested the deposition of the source OM about 60 yrs before cores were taken. A mean sedimentation rate of approximately 2 cm yr−1 indicates substantial changes in near coast tidal flat morphology, since sea level rise is at a much lower pace. High sedimentation rates most probably reflect the progradation of flats within the study area. These or similar morphodynamic features also occur in other coastal areas so that inverted redox succession by horizontal or vertical transport may be more common than previously thought. Consequently, regional values for OM remineralization rates may be higher than predicted from surface biogeochemistry.