Size matters, at least speaking about phytoplankton

Thursday December 15th, Cristina Fernández, predoctoral researcher of the Biological Oceanography research group of the CIM-UVigo, will present the lecture Size matters, at least speaking about phytoplankton at the “Café con Sal” conference cycle.

Why does it matter if a cell is big or small? For more than a century, size has worried the scientific community that today we still do not know how to answer that question with certainty. However, there are actions that determine the preference for one size or another such as heat loss, predation or food acquisition. All of them combined describe reactions and metabolic rates of each organism.

In the early 1930s, a Swiss biologist named Max Kleiber established a rule that would last to these days as a mainstay in biology. Kleiber’s rule aimed that the metabolic rate of an organism is proportional to its size raised to the power of 3/4, so that if an organism doubles in size its metabolic rate will not double but will increase slightly less. This rule has been proved in many species, however, it is still a great puzzle for one of the smallest groups of organisms that we know, for phytoplankton.

Throughout this presentation, it will be explained how metabolic rates respond to the increase in size in the different species of phytoplankton and what implications this has for the productivity of the oceans.

The conference will be held virtually, being live streaming through the Remote Campus of the University of Vigo. To Access please follow the instructions bellow:

  1. Press the virtual room URL https://campusremotouvigo.gal/access/public/meeting/928607699
  2. Access as student with the next password: 6rAsLWyz
  3. Select the microphone access mode and silent it until the question time

The conference will be permanetly available at CIM and UVigoTV websites.

 

 

 

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