Background
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.
Learning Objectives
It is expected that, with this tutorial, participants will be better positioned to:
1. Illustrate how to access and navigate the two Atlas of the Phyto VRE;
2. Discuss the main characteristics of a phytoplankton species;
3. Examine the possible shapes of a phytoplankton species;
4. Present the computational models for surface area and volume of phytoplankton species.
Contents and Structure
Training Blocks:
1. Introduction to Phytoplankton Species and Shapes;
2. Atlas of Phytoplankton;
3. Atlas of Shapes;
4. Presentation of Computational Model service;
5. Overview of LifeWatch Italy Phytoplankton VRE services.
Target Audience
The resource is aimed at marine, transitional and freshwater scientists and students involved in phytoplankton identification, classification, morphological traits association and measurement.
Production
LifeWatch Italy