I briefly discuss how tools from experimental microbial evolution may be used to measure evolutionary responses in marine phytoplankton grown in high CO2 environments. I outline why the particular biology of marine microbes makes conventional experimental evolution difficult, and suggest that “black box” frameworks that focus on partitioning phenotypic change, such as the Price equation, may be used instead.
Collins, S., 2010. Comment on “Effects of long-term high CO2 exposure on two species of coccolithophores” by Müller et al. (2010). Biogeosciences Discussions 7(2): 2673-2679. Article.
