Partners and funding
Mechanistic Approach to Plankton Ecology is a collaboration between the Technical University of Denmark, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Goal
The overarching goal of this project is to develop a mechanistically underpinned, trait-based model of marine plankton ecosystems ranging across multiple trophic levels from bacteria to zooplankton.
Approach and study arena
Zooplankton have a key role in the model, and the themes guiding model design are trait biogeography, vertical material fluxes and carbon sequestration. The Californian Current Ecosystem will serve as the main arena to test the model against field observations. In this, we will use the Zooglider, a novel remote vehicle for surveying plankton communities in the field.
Sub-projects - click to learn more
Zooglider and the sampling of the California Current System