Key species from the northern Adriatic phytoplankton (CIM Culture Collection) will be subjected to a variety of ecologically relevant culture conditions (e.g. changes in nutrient availability). Subsequently we will analyse accessible physiological reactions (e.g. changes in lipid production, morphology and enzymatic activity) and transcriptomes under the different culture conditions and establish a reference transcriptome database with taxonomic resolution at species/strain neveau under the aforementioned conditions.

This reference transcriptome database will be used to increase the taxonomic and physiological resolution in the analysis of in situ metatranscriptomes, derived from field samples along spatio-temporal ecological gradients.

In situ metatranscriptomes will be analysed in the context of the respective ecological conditions and community compositions, taking into account the results from long terms observations of phytoplankton community compositions and oceanographic conditions along the investigates spatio-temporal gradients.

To further improve our understanding the phytoplankton physiology and transcriptomics we will compare results from the highly productive northern Adriatic and the oligotrophic southern Adriatic, where we can observe connected populations under very different conditions in situ.