Project Grant 2137339

This three-year, $623,934 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports collaborative research on the physiological controls of trait expression, nutrient allocation, and elemental stoichiometry in the phytoplankton Synechococcus. The awardee, University of California Irvine, will conduct continuous culture experiments with common phytoplankton strains under varying nutrient supply ratios, temperature, and growth conditions. Biochemical analyses and genome-wide protein studies will link resulting elemental composition differences to changes in cellular composition and expression of specific subsystems and functional traits. Experimental data will be integrated into a trait-based phytoplankton model to quantify the relative roles of acclimation versus adaptation in controlling carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus ratios. Outreach to student groups will describe the importance of marine phytoplankton and ocean ecosystem functions. The research aims to further the mechanistic understanding of how biological processes integrate to control plankton resource allocation in marine ecosystems.