[ESAC Student Seminar] Zoe Aarons

“Modeling phytoplankton stoichiometry across taxonomic groups and nutrient regimes”

Phytoplankton stoichiometry, the cellular C:N:P ratio, partly modulates the flow of carbon by coupling global nutrient cycles with phytoplankton composition. A growing body of work has explored the drivers of phytoplankton C:N:P patterns and sought to include variable stoichiometry in global biogeochemical models. But species-specific parameters may complicate the use of these models in large-scale simulations, since scaling up to global processes requires a general model. Here, we ask if a single parameterization of a macromolecular model can represent phytoplankton stoichiometry across a range of species and environmental conditions. We utilize an adaptation of a mechanistic cellular allocation model (Inomura et al., 2020) which allocates carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to key macromolecular pools, such that growth rate and stoichiometry are related as a function of these pool sizes. The model is used to simulate C:N:P and Chl:C values gathered from literature in order to test if the model can capture stoichiometry for a wide range of data. We aim to examine if the mechanisms governing cellular allocation are preserved across species and nutrient availability — providing insight into the integration of cellular scale models into global biogeochemical models.

ESAC Student Seminar Series —

A forum for students and postdocs to share recent research, hone presentation skills, and build community among peers, sponsored by the EAPS Student Advisory Committee. Open to current EAPS graduate and undergraduate students and postdocs. Typically hosted on Thursdays during the semester, including pizza lunch.

Contact: esac.officers@gmail.com