Speaker – Adrian Marchetti, UNC-Chapel Hill (hosted by A. Schnetzer) 

Seminar title – Exploring the many facets of marine phytoplankton: from proton-pumping rhodopsins to community dynamics in response to upwelling

Abstract – Phytoplankton are responsible for roughly half of global primary productivity and are at the base of most marine food webs. Learning the strategies phytoplankton invoke to cope with certain environmental conditions is critical to our understanding of what influences their distribution and abundance as well as their impact on ocean biogeochemistry. In this talk, I will present two recent studies conducted in my lab demonstrating how phytoplankton have evolved to their distinct ocean environments. First, recently identified, vacuolar-localized proton pumping rhodopsins in polar diatoms may be critical to their survival in cold, low-iron and variable light regions of the ocean. Second, shifts in community composition and physiology under dynamic coastal upwelling conditions demonstrate how the metabolic strategies of distinct phytoplankton groups contribute to their success. These studies highlight how implementing a multi-pronged approach in both natural assemblages and laboratory isolates enables us to determine how phytoplankton may be affected by both current and future ocean conditions.

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