Darwinian adaptation of plankton in global ocean models

Plankton communities are an essential component of ocean biogeochemistry and play a key role in making oceans an important climatic buffer. In the oceans, the environmental control of planktonic activity is modulated by the composition and diversity of plankton physiological traits (e.g., size, temperature and light preferences, stoichiometry, etc.). Yet, very little is known about how plankton communities assemble in the ocean under the combined influence of biological (eco-evolutionary dynamics) and physical mechanisms (mixing, transport). Moreover, this key process is very crudely represented for in current ocean models. Here, I show how integrating Darwinian adaptation into ocean models allows simulating how the functional composition and diversity of plankton communities is shaped by adaptation and ocean physics, how it feeds back on ocean biogeochemistry, and what the implications are for the resilience of marine ecosystems under climate change.