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The accurate resolution of distinct phytoplankton taxa will be a key step towards improvement
of current aquatic ecosystem models. With a growing interest in modeling specific taxa, however, it becomes increasingly
difficult to obtain good estimates for the corresponding parameters. This web server takes an evolutionary perspective to the variability
across phytoplankton taxa in order to estimate the size, maximum growth rate, phosphate affinity and susceptibility to predation
of any phytoplankton taxon, based on over one thousand observations on freshwater species.
The server uses a recently introduced approach to the estimation of parameters with an evolutionary model
(Bruggeman J, Heringa J and Brandt BW. 2009. PhyloPars: estimation of missing parameter values using phylogeny.
Nucleic Acids Research 37: W179-184,
web server).
Results account simultaneously for phylogenetic relationships between species, and approximate power law relationships
(e.g., allometric scaling laws) between different traits.
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