Marine and coastal ecosystems

Marine and coastal ecosystems sit at the center of Earth's carbon and nutrient cycles, with phytoplankton alone responsible for roughly half of global photosynthesis and the transformation of dissolved organic matter into forms that shape ocean chemistry for centuries. Researchers in this area trace how nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus govern biological productivity, how their excess through eutrophication triggers harmful algal blooms that threaten fisheries and human health, and how these dynamics feed back into the broader oceanic carbon cycle. A pressing open question is how accelerating global warming will reorganize these systems — altering stratification, oxygen levels, and the balance of nutrient limitation across ocean basins in ways that current models still struggle to predict with confidence. Understanding these shifts matters not only for ocean ecology but for the planet's capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide over the coming decades.

Works

157,569

Total citations

3,706,789

Keywords

Dissolved Organic MatterEutrophicationHarmful Algal BloomsOceanic Carbon CyclePhytoplanktonGlobal Warming