Aquatic ecologists face challenges in identifying the general rules of the functioning of
ecosystems. A common framework, including freshwater, marine, benthic, and pelagic …

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand
challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and …

Heterotrophic nanoflagellates are the main consumers of bacteria and picophytoplankton in
the ocean and thus play a key role in ocean biogeochemistry. They are found in all major …

Planktonic copepods are the most abundant animals in the ocean and key players in global
biochemical processes. Recent modeling suggests that zooplankton ingestion of …

Marine heatwaves (MHWs), discrete but prolonged periods of anomalously warm seawater,
can fundamentally restructure marine communities and ecosystems. Although our …

Plankton imaging systems supported by automated classification and analysis have
improved ecologists' ability to observe aquatic ecosystems. Today, we are on the cusp of …

Predicting the effects of multiple global change stressors on microbial communities remains
a challenge because of the complex interactions among those factors. Here, we explore the …

Fish are one of the most important global food sources, supplying a significant share of the
world's protein consumption. From stocks of wild Alaskan salmon and North Sea cod to …

Despite our growing understanding of the global carbon cycle, scientific consensus on the
drivers and mechanisms that control dissolved organic carbon (DOC) turnover in aquatic …

A curated database of shark and ray biological data is increasingly necessary both to
support fisheries management and conservation efforts, and to test the generality of …