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      Ecosystem services provided by marine and freshwater phytoplankton

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          Abstract

          Phytoplankton, the ecological group of microalgae adapted to live in apparent suspension in water masses, is much more than an ecosystem’s engineer. In this opinion paper, we use our experience as phytoplankton ecologists to list and highlight the services provided by phytoplankton, trying to demonstrate how their activity is fundamental to regulate and sustain Life on our Planet. Although the number of services produced by phytoplankton can be considered less numerous than that produced by other photosynthetic organisms, the ubiquity of this group of organisms, and their thriving across oceanic ecosystems make it one of the biological engines moving our biosphere. Supporting services provided by phytoplankton include almost half of the global primary and oxygen production. In addition, phytoplankton greatly pushes biogeochemical cycles and nutrient (re)cycling, not only in aquatic ecosystems but also in terrestrial ones. In addition, it significantly contributes to climate regulation (regulating services), supplies food, fuels, active ingredients and drugs, and genetic resources (provisioning services), has inspired artistic and craft works, mythology, and, of course, science (cultural services), and much more. Therefore, phytoplankton should be considered in all respects a true biosphere’s engineer.

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          The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital

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            Changes in the global value of ecosystem services

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              Primary production of the biosphere: integrating terrestrial and oceanic components

              Integrating conceptually similar models of the growth of marine and terrestrial primary producers yielded an estimated global net primary production (NPP) of 104.9 petagrams of carbon per year, with roughly equal contributions from land and oceans. Approaches based on satellite indices of absorbed solar radiation indicate marked heterogeneity in NPP for both land and oceans, reflecting the influence of physical and ecological processes. The spatial and temporal distributions of ocean NPP are consistent with primary limitation by light, nutrients, and temperature. On land, water limitation imposes additional constraints. On land and ocean, progressive changes in NPP can result in altered carbon storage, although contrasts in mechanisms of carbon storage and rates of organic matter turnover result in a range of relations between carbon storage and changes in NPP.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                luigi.naselli@unipa.it
                padisak@almos.uni-pannon.hu
                Journal
                Hydrobiologia
                Hydrobiologia
                Hydrobiologia
                Springer International Publishing (Cham )
                0018-8158
                1573-5117
                28 January 2022
                28 January 2022
                : 1-16
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.10776.37, ISNI 0000 0004 1762 5517, Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF), , University of Palermo, ; Via Archirafi, 28, 90123 Palermo, Italy
                [2 ]GRID grid.7336.1, ISNI 0000 0001 0203 5854, Research Group of Limnology, Centre for Natural Sciences, , University of Pannonia, ; Egyetem u. 10, Veszprém, 8200 Hungary
                Author notes

                Handling editor: Sidinei Magela Thomaz

                Guest editors: Verónica Ferreira, Luis Mauricio Bini, Katya E. Kovalenko, Andre A. Padial, Judit Padisák & María de los Ángeles González Sagrario / Aquatic Ecosystem Services

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3748-3862
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8285-2896
                Article
                4795
                10.1007/s10750-022-04795-y
                8795964
                35106010
                b880847a-6f18-4d55-abf9-cbddafd17124
                © The Author(s) 2022

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 1 November 2021
                : 26 December 2021
                : 3 January 2022
                Categories
                Aquatic Ecosystem Services

                biosphere’s engineers,climate regulation,primary production,nutrient cycling,cultural services

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