This work area will investigate the prime constraints on coccolithophorid ecology and the ecological significance of biodiversity within the coccolithophorids. This page outlines the background , methodology , and objectives of this work area.
Individual species are cosmopolitan but with more or less limited latitudinal distributions.
These latitudinal zones must in large part reflect temperature tolerance but even at this level it is apparent that other factors are of major significance. We have only limited understanding of the ecology of a few individual species, notably Emiliania huxleyi . This reflects, in part, a paucity of culture studies and so, of direct information on the autecology of species. It also reflects a shortage of suitable studies on natural populations. Much available data deal with relative numerical abundances in coccolithophorid assemblages, which is likely biased.