new paper on Communications Biology: Warming alters plankton body-size distributions in a large field experiment

I am very excited to share our new paper on how #warming affect #plankton #bodysize distributions. We used one of the largest outdoor #mesocosm experiments to test our hypothesis. Link here

We found that warming consistently reduced zooplankton body size at both the community and population levels. This aligns with the TSR, which predicts smaller body sizes in warmer conditions.

Different taxa responded differently. Larger species (e.g., copepoda) showed the steepest declines in body size. But for some, this response wasn’t linear - certain taxa had breakpoints where size dropped more sharply at higher temps! We did not find an effect of seasons

Despite changes in body size and community composition, total zooplankton biomass & abundance remained stable. This suggests compensatory effects—some species thrive as others shrink

Our study highlights the need for large-scale, fine-resolution warming experiments to predict ecosystem changes. Small-scale studies may miss key nonlinear shifts. Future research should explore these trends further!

A big thanks to all the co-author, especially to Michelle Jackson who was a great PI and leader