Phylogenetic community ecology as an approach for studying old ideas on competition in the plankton: opportunities and challenges

Abstract

There is a long history in ecology of studying the mechanisms that may promote the long-term co-occurrence of phytoplankton, and zooplankton to a lesser degree, in aquatic systems. The recent emergence of using phylogenetic information to understand community assembly may represent a new tool for tackling old questions about competition in plankton, although studies using such methods in this way are rare to date. Here, I provide an overview of the general methods developed in related studies, briefly review existing works, and discuss various conceptual and methodological challenges that researchers should be aware of before applying these methods to plankton communities.

Keywords

• coexistence
• competition
• habitat filtering
• niche differences
• phylogenetic community structure
• plankton.

Supporting Agencies

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada