Physiology experiments to tie genetic potential to measured traits
Population and community ecology via traits
The vast molecular diversity of phytoplankton and other protists can be tied to large-scale processes and nutrient biogeochemistry via physiology. Physiology experiments track the rate of population growth, nutrient use, or metabolite production by isolates or communities. I design physiology experiments to link genetic diversity, for example strain differentiation in the cosmopolitan coccolithophore Gephyrocapsa huxleyi, to traits that models can be parameterized with, for example thermal niche width or habitat.