"Impact of mixotrophic strategies on marine ecosystem structure and functioning"Mitra, AditeeThe term ‘mixotroph’ was coined over a century ago. In marine ecology this term has been used indiscriminately to describe photosynthetic plankton that engage in heterotrophy via osmotrophy (i.e., phytoplankton) versus those that also engage in heterotrophy via phagotrophy (i.e., mixoplankton). The contrasting physiological traits of these mixotrophic primary producers have different consequences for ecosystem structure and functioning. Using systems biology dynamic models, we explore the consequences of the different modes of mixotrophy in marine trophic dynamics. We simulated the different mixotrophic traits exhibited by phytoplankton and mixoplankton in traditional autecological and community ecological studies. Our results show that mixotrophy can enhance competitive advantage in phytoplankton as well as mixoplankton but the impact of the different strategies on ecosystem dynamics are substantially different. Our findings emphasise the importance of using correct mathematical descriptions of mixotrophic strategies within marine ecosystem models. This is especially important to gain an understanding of the implications of anthropogenic activities on ecosystem dynamics. Under climate change, implementation of inaccurate mixotrophic strategies to describe ecosystem function could result in erroneous predictions of marine biodiversity with consequences for ecosystem services. |
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