Large scale patterns of marine diatom richness: drivers and trends in a changing ocean.

Aim
Plankton diversity is a pivotal element of marine ecosystem stability and functioning. A major obstacle in the assessment of diversity is the lack of consistency between patterns assessed by molecular and morphological data. This work aims to reconcile the two in a single richness measure, to investigate the environmental drivers affecting such measure, and finally to predict its spatio-temporal patterns.
Location & Time period
This is a global-scale study, based on data collected within the 2009-2013 interval during the Tara Oceans expedition.
Major taxa studied
The focus of this study is diatoms. They play an important role in several biogeochemical cycles and within marine food webs, while displaying a high taxonomic and functional richness.
Methods
We integrate measures of diatom richness across the global ocean using molecular and morphological approaches, giving particular attention to the rare biosphere. We then perform a machine-learning-based analysis of these reconcile...