The synthesis collection: Fifty‐one essential articles for today's aquatic scientist

The explosive growth of scientific publishing has reached a point where we are becoming overwhelmed by the challenge of keeping up with advances in our area of specialty, and even more challenged to keep up with advances across the broad spectrum of limnological and oceanographic research. This challenge motivated us to publish Synthesis articles in Limnology and Oceanography Letters, which summarize recent advances from many individual studies, providing a synthetic and contemporary view of a research topic or theme. The target of this article type (previously called Current Evidence), explained in the author guidelines, is a “concise synthesis of the current status of a subject in the aquatic sciences that is topical, in need of evaluation or assessment, or is an emerging issue that has not been fully explored.” This compilation marks the start of a collection that will grow and expand as our science advances and more authors contribute their Syntheses. Browse this collection when launching a new project. Share it with students searching for thesis topics. Use it to remind yourself why we fell in love with the aquatic sciences in the first place. Enjoy, share, learn (and submit your own Syntheses!). Using the diel cycle of ocean microbes to better understand their biogeochemical functions https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.70027 An ecological framework for microbial metabolites in the ocean ecosystem https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.70046 Hidden in plain sight: The importance of cryptic interactions in marine plankton https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10084 Exploring the mismatch between the theory and application of photosynthetic quotients in aquatic ecosystems https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10326 Thinking like a consumer: Linking aquatic basal metabolism and consumer dynamics https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10172 A global review of pyrosomes: Shedding light on the ocean's elusive gelatinous “fire-bodies” https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10350 Integrating siphonophores into marine food-web ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10235 Can small zooplankton mix lakes? https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10047 An integrative salt marsh conceptual framework for global comparisons https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10346 Finding the missing piece of the aquatic plastic pollution puzzle: Interaction between primary producers and microplastics https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10040 Micro-by-micro interactions: How microorganisms influence the fate of marine microplastics https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10136 Microplastic occurrence and effects in commercially harvested North American finfish and shellfish: Current knowledge and future directions https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10122 Five state factors control progressive stages of freshwater salinization syndrome https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10248 Mud in the city: Effects of freshwater salinization on inland urban wetland nitrogen and phosphorus availability and export https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10273 The role of microbial exopolymers in determining the fate of oil and chemical dispersants in the ocean https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10030 Integrating phytoplankton phenology, traits, and model-data fusion to advance bloom prediction https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.70052 Blooms also like it cold https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10316 Microcystin as a biogeochemical cycle: Pools, fluxes, and fates of the cyanotoxin in inland waters https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10300 The role of surface water waves on cyanobacterial blooms in lakes https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.70044 Understanding and predicting harmful algal blooms in a changing climate: A trait-based framework https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10294 Multiple climatic drivers increase pace and consequences of ecosystem change in the Arctic Coastal Ocean https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10431 Future Arctic: how will increasing coastal erosion shape nearshore planktonic food webs? https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10446 Forecasting climate and human alterations to coastal and estuarine dissolved organic matter https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.70002 Greenhouse gas emissions from lakes and impoundments: Upscaling in the face of global change https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10073 Key differences between lakes and reservoirs modify climate signals: A case for a new conceptual model https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10036 Consequences of lake and river ice loss on cultural ecosystem services https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10116 Causes and consequences of recent degradation of the Magdalena River basin, Colombia https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10272 Risk to native marine macroalgae from land-use and climate change-related modifications to groundwater discharge in Hawai'i https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10232 Changing phenology of benthic primary producers in inland waters: Current knowledge and future directions https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10381 Stoichiometry of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus through the freshwater pipe https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10080 Phytoplankton antioxidant systems and their contributions to cellular elemental stoichiometry https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10233 Terrestrial carbon inputs to inland waters: A current synthesis of estimates and uncertainty https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10055 Dissolved black carbon in aquatic ecosystems https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10076 Tree-DOM: Dissolved organic matter in throughfall and stemflow https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10059 Hot tops, cold bottoms: Synergistic climate warming and shielding effects increase carbon burial in lakes https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10117 Beyond respiration: Controls on lateral carbon fluxes across the terrestrial-aquatic interface https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10065 Anthropogenic influences on riverine fluxes of dissolved inorganic carbon to the oceans https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10069 A synthesis of carbon dioxide and methane dynamics during the ice-covered period of northern lakes https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10079 Nitrogen fixation: A poorly understood process along the freshwater–marine continuum https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10220 A case for addressing the unresolved role of permeable shelf sediments in ocean denitrification https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10218 Calcium carbonate and phosphorus interactions in inland waters https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10452 Freshwater carbonate buffering revisited https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.70047 Establishing a long-term citizen science project? Lessons learned from the Community Lake Ice Collaboration spanning over 30 yr and 1000 lakes https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10336 What's hot and what's not in the aquatic sciences—Understanding and improving news coverage https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10425 Salty sensors, fresh ideas: The use of molecular and imaging sensors in understanding plankton dynamics across marine and freshwater ecosystems https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10128 Capitalizing on the wealth of chemical data in the accretionary structures of aquatic taxa: Opportunities from across the tree of life https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10448 Oyster shells as archives of present and past environmental variability and life history traits: A multi-disciplinary review of sclerochronology methods and applications https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10461 Biogeochemical tools for characterizing organic carbon in inland aquatic ecosystems https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10097 Deep-learning-powered data analysis in plankton ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10392 Environmental variability in aquatic ecosystems: Avenues for future multifactorial experiments https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10286 Integrating ocean observations across body-size classes to deliver benthic invertebrate abundance and distribution information https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10332 We thank Bridget Deemer and Laura Falkenberg for thoughtful comments that improved our original Editorial, and express our deep appreciation for all authors of Synthesis articles bound in this special issue of Limnology and Oceanography Letters.