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Global biodiversity patterns of marine phytoplankton and zooplankton

Nature volume 429, pages 863–867 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Although the oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface, our knowledge of biodiversity patterns in marine phytoplankton and zooplankton is very limited compared to that of the biodiversity of plants and herbivores in the terrestrial world. Here, we present biodiversity data for marine plankton assemblages from different areas of the world ocean. Similar to terrestrial vegetation1,2,3, marine phytoplankton diversity is a unimodal function of phytoplankton biomass, with maximum diversity at intermediate levels of phytoplankton biomass and minimum diversity during massive blooms. Contrary to expectation, we did not find a relation between phytoplankton diversity and zooplankton diversity. Zooplankton diversity is a unimodal function of zooplankton biomass. Most strikingly, these marine biodiversity patterns show a worldwide consistency, despite obvious differences in environmental conditions of the various oceanographic regions. These findings may serve as a new benchmark in the search for global biodiversity patterns of plants and herbivores.

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Figure 1: General characteristics of the data sets.
Figure 2: Biodiversity patterns of marine phytoplankton (global data set).
Figure 3: Specific patterns along the productivity gradient.
Figure 4: Biodiversity patterns of marine microzooplankton.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all who contributed to collecting the samples on the different cruises. Special thanks go to D. Harbour, who counted most of the samples to the species level and to M. Zubkov for the picoplankton data. X.I. was supported by a Ramon y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry for Science and Technology and the Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Education, and Universities and Research of the Basque Country Government. The research of J.H. was supported by the Earth and Life Sciences Foundation (ALW), which is subsidized by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The research of R.P.H. is a contribution to the Plymouth Marine Laboratory Core Strategic Research Programme. This study was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council through the Atlantic Meridional Transect consortium (this is contribution number 87 of the AMT programme).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AZTI, Arrantza eta Elikaigintzarako Institutu Teknologikoa, Herrera Kaia portualdea, 20110, Pasaia, Spain

    Xabier Irigoien

  2. Aquatic Microbiology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 127, 1018 WS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jef Huisman

  3. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK

    Roger P. Harris

Authors
  1. Xabier Irigoien
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  2. Jef Huisman
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  3. Roger P. Harris
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xabier Irigoien.

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The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Includes information on: geographic locations of the sampling stations; biodiversity patterns in the English Channel; picophytoplankton; metrics of diversity; Supplementary Figure 1: Map showing the sampled stations; Supplementary Figure 2: Biodiversity patterns of phytoplankton in the English Channel; Supplementary Figure 3: Biodiversity patterns of zooplankton in the English Channel; Supplementary Figure 4: Picophytoplankton patterns; Supplementary Figure 5: Species richness of phytoplankton, plotted as a function ofphytoplankton biomass and zooplankton biomass; Supplementary Table 1 showing sampling information. (PDF 9580 kb)

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Irigoien, X., Huisman, J. & Harris, R. Global biodiversity patterns of marine phytoplankton and zooplankton. Nature 429, 863–867 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02593

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