This paper introduces a collection of contributions presented at the 8th Workshop of the International Association of Phytoplankton Taxonomy and Ecology. It compares the substance of with what to limnologists is the more familiar ‘paradox of the plankton’ posed by G. E. Hutchinson. The utility of Connell‘s Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis in plankton ecology is, potentially, more instructive but inherent difficulties in relating response to stimulus have to be overcome. A copy of the brief distributed to contributors before the workshop is appended.