Data from: Physiological and ecological drivers of early spring blooms of a coastal phytoplankter

Climate affects the timing and magnitude of phytoplankton blooms that fuel marine food webs and influence global biogeochemical cycles. Changes in bloom timing have been detected in some cases, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive, contributing to uncertainty in long-term predictions of climate change impacts. Here we describe a 13-year hourly time series from the New England shelf of data on the coastal phytoplankter Synechococcus, during which the timing of its spring bloom varied by 4 weeks. We show that multiyear trends are due to temperature-induced changes in cell division rate, with earlier blooms driven by warmer spring water temperatures. Synechococcus loss rates shift in tandem with division rates, suggesting a balance between growth and loss that has persisted despite phenological shifts and environmental change.气候可调控滋养海洋食物网、影响全球生物地球化学循环的浮游植物水华的发生时机与规模。已有研究在部分案例中观测到水华发生时机的改变，但其背后的核心机制仍未明晰，这也加剧了气候变化影响长期预测的不确定性。本研究描述了一段采自新英格兰大陆架、为期13年的沿岸浮游植物聚球藻（Synechococcus）逐小时观测时间序列，在此期间其春季水华的发生时间波动幅度达4周。研究表明，多年间的变化趋势源于温度诱导的细胞分裂速率变化，春季水温升高会驱动水华提前发生。聚球藻的损失速率与细胞分裂速率同步变化，这表明尽管经历了物候转变与环境变化，其生长与损失之间仍维持着动态平衡。