1 page.-- Published in section "Correspondence".-- Commentary on the article by Falkowski and Oliver "Mix and match: how climate selects phytoplankton", Nature Reviews Microbiology 5: 813-819 (2007), http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1751
A recent review by Falkowski and Oliver argues that coccolithophorid algae, and possibly cyanobacteria and other picoplankton and nanoplankton, should dominate the upper mixed layer of the open ocean in the future. A scenario that involves increased ocean temperature would result in greater water-column stability and reduced turbulent mixing that, consequently, would reduce the input of inorganic nutrients from the deep ocean. This situation favours the growth of small plankton that have high surface to volume ratios over larger organisms, such as diatoms. Here, I contend that the presence of other factors renders this prediction of a generalized picoplankton and nanoplankton ocean uncertain.
VARITEC (CTM2004-04442-C02). Ramón y Cajal contract (2001) to Francesc Peters.