Phytoplankton Community Ecology: The Role of Limiting Nutrients

Abstract

This paper is a summary and synthesis of the role of nutrients and spatial and temporal fluctuations in controlling the species composition, diversity, and seasonal succession of planktonic algal communities. We do not review the full breadth and depth of the literature that has appeared since the seminal papers by Hutchinson (34) and Dugdale (19). Rather, we focus on some of the major questions and hypotheses, and evaluate these in light of their consistency with observation and experimentation. Because the combined net effect of limiting nutrients, major ions, pH, and other physical factors ultimately determines the reproductive rate of a local algal population, we first briefly review the data on the role of these factors in phytoplankton ecology. We then review the theory of resource competition and apply it to the questions of equilibrium versus nonequilibrium approaches, seasonal succession, and multitrophic level effects in phytoplankton com-