Marine Plankton: Biological and Chemical Interactions

Marine phytoplankton are the base of marine food webs and are a food source for many marine species, such as bivalves, crustaceans, fish, and whales. Phytoplankton ecosystems also play an important role in many chemical elements. The composition, abundance, biomass, and diversity of the phytoplankton community are regulated in part by abiotic factors such as temperature, light, nutrients, and currents. However biotic factors such as competition, depredation, mutualism, parasitism, and disease, also play a significant factor in the regulation of plankton communities. Many of these interactions are regulated by a wide variety of chemical cues. To understand the complex and subtle interaction among biotic and chemical interactions in the marine phytoplankton ecosystem extensive research is still needed. New information may allow decision-makers to better foresee the main consequences of human and climate-driven impacts on the fragile marine plankton ecosystem.



The Research Topic focuses on original and novel studies that link the changes in biological characteristics, due to chemical interactions and how these factors regulate phytoplankton communities. This Research Topic welcomes research and review contributions that address physiological and morphological changes during biotic interactions between phytoplankton species, competitive dynamics in marine phytoplankton in different environments and approaches using omics methodologies (metabolomics, proteomics, and genomics) to understand the impacts of biotic or chemically mediated competition between marine phytoplankton species.



1) Biotic interactions between phytoplankton species.

2) Impact of chemical interactions in marine phytoplankton.

3) Metabolomic and proteomic approaches in biotic and chemically mediated competition among marine phytoplankton species.

4) Temporal dynamics in phytoplankton biotic and chemical interactions.