Workflow 4

Workflow 4: The role of rare phytoplankton species in community structure

This workflow investigates the ecological role of rare and occasional phytoplankton species and their contribution to community structure and size organisation. It integrates and standardises phytoplankton data, computes functional traits, and aggregates information to enable comparisons across sites and regions. The workflow applies progressive filtering procedures to assess how the removal of increasingly rare taxa affects community structure and size–density relationships. Size-based analyses and statistical comparisons are used to evaluate changes in scaling patterns and to quantify the contribution of rare species across body-size classes. The workflow also characterises the taxonomic and size structure of rare taxa.