title: The evolution of modern eukaryotic phytoplankton.
abstract: The community structure and ecological function of contemporary marine ecosystems are critically dependent on eukaryotic phytoplankton. Although numerically inferior to cyanobacteria, these organisms are responsible for the majority of the flux of organic matter to higher trophic levels and the ocean interior. Photosynthetic eukaryotes evolved more than 1.5 billion years ago in the Proterozoic oceans. However, it was not until the Mesozoic Era (251 to 65 million years ago) that the three principal phytoplankton clades that would come to dominate the modern seas rose to ecological prominence. In contrast to their pioneering predecessors, the dinoflagellates, coccolithophores, and diatoms all contain plastids derived from an ancestral red alga by secondary symbiosis. Here we examine the geological, geochemical, and biological processes that contributed to the rise of these three, distantly related, phytoplankton groups.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08540, USA. falko@imcs.rutgers.edu
authors.forename: Paul G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Falkowski
authors.forename: Miriam E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: Andrew H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Knoll
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quigg
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Raven
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Schofield
authors.forename: F J R
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D010802:Phylogeny; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000145:classification / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D018087:Plastids / Q000502:physiology