Suzana G Leles, Chase James, Hagen Buck-Wiese, Naomi M Levine
The standard paradigm of marine microbial physiology has been to assess the "optimal" phenotype under defined environmental conditions. Yet marine microbes experience large environmental fluctuations. We argue for increased quantification of phenotypic plasticity to identify growth strategies in variable environments in order to help parameterize the next generation of biogeochemical models.