The Rynearson lab focuses on understanding how plankton diversity is shaped by both ecological and evolutionary processes. We are interested in how those processes affect plankton community structure, function and productivity. Projects include examining the response of phytoplankton to climate change, understanding the relative roles of dispersal and natural selection in determining the structure and productivity of planktonic communities, and investigating metabolic responses to nutrient stress in phytoplankton. Students and postdocs in the Rynearson lab study organisms as tiny as bacteria and as large as Antarctic krill. We focus predominantly on diatoms, phytoplankton that generate about 40% of all primary production in the world’s oceans. Study sites include local Narragansett Bay waters, the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Oceans and many bays and fjords around the world.