title: Title: Freshwater phytoplankton responses to global warming.
abstract: Global warming alters species composition and function of freshwater ecosystems. However, the impact of temperature on primary productivity is not sufficiently understood and water quality models need to be improved in order to assess the quantitative and qualitative changes of aquatic communities. On the basis of experimental data, we demonstrate that the commonly used photosynthetic and water chemistry parameters alone are not sufficient for modeling phytoplankton growth under changing temperature regimes. We present some new aspects of the acclimation process with respect to temperature and how contrasting responses may be explained by a more complete physiological knowledge of the energy flow from photons to new biomass. We further suggest including additional bio-markers/traits for algal growth such as carbon allocation patterns to increase the explanatory power of such models. Although carbon allocation patterns are promising and functional cellular traits for growth prediction under different nutrient and light conditions, their predictive power still waits to be tested with respect to temperature. A great challenge for the near future will be the prediction of primary production efficiencies under the global change scenario using a uniform model for phytoplankton assemblages.
authors.affiliation: Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Department of Plant Physiology, Johannisallee 21-23, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: hwagner@uni-leipzig.de.
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Department of Plant Physiology, Johannisallee 21-23, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fanesi
authors.affiliation: Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Department of Plant Physiology, Johannisallee 21-23, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000502:physiology; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D005618:Fresh Water; D057232:Global Warming; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon
keywords: Carbon allocation; freshwater ecosystems; global warming; photosynthesis; primary production; temperature