Symbiotic capacity in a changing ocean: emerging questions around phytoplankton interactions
Soraya M. Zwahlen · Flora Vincent
期刊Trends in Ecology & Evolution
类型Review
发表2026-08
收录2026-10-10
被浏览…
关键词phytoplanktonsymbiosisphytoplankton-bacteria interactionsocean changeTinbergen's four questionsdiatomsChaetocerosbiogeochemical cycles
标签—
annually and drive key global nutrient cycles. They depend on interactions with bacteria, viruses, and protists. Yet our understanding of these interactions remains fragmented. We introduce symbiotic capacity-an organism's ability to initiate, maintain, and modulate partnerships-as a quantifiable trait fundamental to phytoplankton ecology and resilience in changing oceans. By adapting Tinbergen's four questions from ethology, we reveal critical gaps in our knowledge regarding phytoplankton symbiotic capacity. While functional benefits, molecular mechanisms, and evolutionary origins of phytoplankton symbioses are increasingly documented, their developmental dynamics remain almost entirely unexplored. Bridging molecular mechanisms to planetary-scale biogeochemical processes requires a fifth question and suitable model systems, such as Chaetoceros diatoms, that integrate laboratory tractability with ecological relevance.

@article{zwahlen2026,
author = {Soraya M. Zwahlen and Flora Vincent},
title = {Symbiotic capacity in a changing ocean: emerging questions around phytoplankton interactions},
journal = {Trends in Ecology \& Evolution},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.009},
publisher = {Elsevier BV},
}· END ·