Phyto VRE: Species and Shapes

Phytoplankton plays an important role in aquatic ecosystems as it accounts for most of global primary production and affects the biogeochemical processes, trophic dynamics and biodiversity architecture.

LifeWatch Italy, one of the ERIC's national nodes, designed the Phytoplankton Virtual Research Environment (Phyto VRE) to support researches on phytoplankton guilds and their relative structure, organization and ecological function. The Phyto VRE services, in fact, enable researchers to analyse and process phytoplankton data at a level of resolution from individual cells to whole guilds. In particular, the Atlas of Phytoplankton and the Atlas of Shapes provide harmonised data on taxonomy and morphological and demographic traits.

This resource illustrates how to access, navigate and use these two services of the LifeWatch Italy Phyto VRE.