English: Informing the Earth system science with marine phytoplankton by omics data. Metatranscriptome sequences from natural phytoplankton communities helped to identify physiological traits (cellular concentration of ribosomes and their rRNAs) underpinning adaptation to environmental conditions (temperature). A mechanistic phytoplankton cell model was used to test the significance of the identified physiological trait for cellular stoichiometry. Environmental selection in a trait‐based global marine ecosystem model was then linking emergent growth and cellular allocation strategies to large‐scale patterns in light, nutrients and temperature in the surface marine environment. Global predictions of cellular resource allocation and stoichiometry (N:P ratio) were consistent with patterns in metatranscriptome data (Toseland et al ., 2013) and latitudinal patterns in the elemental ratios of marine plankton and organic matter (Martiny et al ., 2013). Three‐dimensional view of ribosome was taken from Wikipedia, showing rRNA in dark blue and dark red. Lighter colours represent ribosomal proteins. Bands above show temperature‐dependent abundance of the eukaryotic ribosomal protein S14, adapted from Toseland et al . (2013).

• Toseland A, Daines SJ and Clark JR et al . (2013) "The impact of temperature on marine phytoplankton resource allocation and metabolism". Nature Climate Change, 3: 979– 984. doi:10.1038/nclimate1989.
• Martiny AC, Pham CTA, Primeau FW, Vrugt JA, Moore JK, Levin SA and Lomas MW (2013) "Strong latitudinal patterns in the elemental ratios of marine plankton and organic matter". Nature Geoscience, 6: 279–283. doi:10.1038/ngeo1757.