July 05, 2018: SFB 754 colloquium

14:30 h in TLZ Seminar Room at the GEOMAR east shore 
(Gebäude 14, Wischhofstr. 1-3)

Abstract:

Understanding how biological activity in the sea will respond to environmental change is governed by two components. First, our understanding of how the resources important to ocean microbes will vary and second, how these fluctuations in abundance impact the vital rates of microbes. When these insights are embedded into ocean models, we have a powerful ability to project the impacts of changes in climate on marine ecosystems and associated factors such as the biological carbon pump, especially at the regional scales needed by policy makers. However, our current paradigm rests on only a handful of essential resources and ignores the emerging evidence of additional important resources and the prevalence of co-limitation as important determinants of biological activity. To move forward we need to first understand how the ocean cycling of multiple resources is governed and reconsider how to account for the impact of multiple factors in governing microbial activity. I will present the first results of our steps along this road concerning the micronutrients cobalt, zinc and copper and including results from new ocean models and observations.