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Research advances in ecological stoichiometry of marine plankton.

CHEN Lei1,2, LI Chao-lun1   

  1. (1Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science, Qingdao 266071, Shandong, China; 2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)
  • Online:2014-10-18 Published:2014-10-18

Abstract:

Ecological stoichiometry can be simply defined as: The biology of elements from molecules to the biosphere, which spans all levels of the environment and of the life. It’s a new idea to build a unified theory and becomes an inevitable trend to develop the ecological science. Marine ecosystems, which contribute to 50% of the biosphere biomass, are the important component of the global biogeochemical cycles. Marine zooplankton plays an important role in the material circulation and energy flow of marine ecosystems and serves as a connecting link between the preceding and the following in a more precise understanding of the key elemental cycles. However, research on ecological stoichiometry of marine plankton is fragmentary and rare. This article summarized the ecological phenomena and mechanisms of limiting elements affecting marine plankton, the response of biochemical substances to nutrition limitation, and the food chain transmission and feedback of nutrition limitation. Meanwhile, we also put forward some perspectives for future research of ecological stoichiometry of plankton in China’s seas.