Please consider submitting an abstract to the following session (deadline Oct. 7):

What determines plankton biogeography? The abundance of each species in a
community is thought to be regulated by the interplay of its functional traits,
biotic interactions, and the environment. The environment varies on spatial and
temporal scales ranging from short-lived, small-scale fluid turbulence to
long-term climate change through Earth history and in future warming scenarios,
and is instrumental in driving the biogeography and community ecology of aquatic
species. Much has been learned about the physical, chemical, and biological
regulation of plankton biogeography from ecosystem modeling, concerted plankton
surveys (e.g., the Continuous Plankton Recorder and Atlantic Meridional
Transect), the fossil record, and more recently, molecular and genomic
techniques, yet many unknowns remain. Here we ask where and when, and why, are
certain species with known functional traits successful in marine and fresh
waters? Specifically, we invite laboratory, field, bioinformatic, and modeling
submissions that seek to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of
plankton taxa, broadly defined as zooplankton, phytoplankton, and
bacterioplankton, by considering how their functional traits vary along
environmental gradients at all spatial and temporal scales. We encourage
submissions that seek to build enhanced, mechanistic understanding of plankton
biogeography, with an eye toward "putting plankton functional traits on the
map."

Session organizers

Andrew Barton, MIT  adbarton@mit.edu

Elena Litchman, MSU  litchman@msu.edu

Andrew Pershing, University of Maine  andrew.pershing@maine.edu