1 Diversity and ecology of eukaryotic marine phytoplankton

Abstract (150-200 words) Eukaryotic marine phytoplankton taxa are extremely diverse and distributed across major eukaryotic lineages. About 5000 species have been described so far with traditional morphological methods, but recent environmental molecular surveys are unveiling an ever-increasing diversity, including entirely new lineages with no representatives in culture. It is largely accepted that marine photosynthetic eukaryotes are significant contributors to major global ecological processes (oxygen production, carbon fixation and CO