Workflow 3

Workflow 3: Interspecific coexistence and niche partitioning in phytoplankton

Workflow 3 is dedicated to the study of interspecific coexistence mechanisms in phytoplankton communities, using a size–abundance relationship approach and analysing how changes in abiotic factors influence niche partitioning. The workflow supports the use of laboratory, field, and monitoring data, including species frequency and absolute abundance, body size, and abiotic environmental variables.

This workflow provides a reproducible framework to investigate species coexistence and niche partitioning in phytoplankton communities. It includes the selection of dominant taxa, the integration of biological and environmental data, and the grouping of taxa into body-size classes. Multivariate ordination analyses, such as Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA), are used to describe species distributions along environmental gradients and to derive niche position and niche breadth metrics. The workflow further quantifies niche overlap within and among size classes and applies null model Monte Carlo simulations to assess whether observed patterns of niche partitioning differ from random expectations.