  Turbulence plays a major role in shaping marine community structure as it
affects organism dispersal and guides fundamental ecological interactions.
Below oceanographic mesoscale dynamics, turbulence also impinges on subtle
physical-biological coupling at the single cell level, setting a sea of
chemical gradients and determining microbial interactions with profound effects
on scales much larger than the organisms themselves. It has been only recently
that we have started to disentangle details of this coupling for swimming
microorganisms. However, for non-motile species, which comprise some of the
most abundant phytoplankton groups on Earth, a similar level of mechanistic
understanding is still missing. Here, we explore by means of extensive
numerical simulations the interplay between buoyancy regulation in non-motile
phytoplankton and cellular responses to turbulent mechanical cues. Using a
minimal mechano-response model, we show how such a mechanism would contribute
to spatial heterogeneity and affect vertical fluxes and trigger community
segregation.
