The Mixoplankton Database - diversity of photo-phago-trophic plankton in form, function and distribution across the global ocean

Mitra, Aditee ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5572-9331, Caron, David A., Faure, Emile, Flynn, Kevin J., Gonçalves Leles, Suzana, Hansen, Per J., McManus, George B., Not, Fabrice, do Rosario Gomes, Helga, Santoferrara, Luciana, Stoecker, Diane K. and Tillmann, Urban 2023. The Mixoplankton Database - diversity of photo-phago-trophic plankton in form, function and distribution across the global ocean. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 70 (4) , e12972. 10.1111/jeu.12972

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Abstract

Protist plankton are major members of open-water marine food webs. Traditionally divided between phototrophic phytoplankton and phagotrophic zooplankton, recent research shows many actually combine phototrophy and phagotrophy in the one cell; these protists are the ‘mixoplankton’. Under the mixoplankton paradigm, ‘phytoplankton’ are incapable of phagotrophy (diatoms being exemplars), while ‘zooplankton’ are incapable of phototrophy. This revision restructures marine food webs, from regional to global levels. Here we present the first comprehensive database of marine mixoplankton, bringing together extant knowledge of the identity, allometry, physiology and trophic interactivity of these organisms. This Mixoplankton Database (MDB) will aid researchers that confront difficulties in characterizing life traits of protist plankton, and it will benefit modellers needing to better appreciate ecology of these organisms with their complex functional and allometric predator-prey interactions. The MDB also identifies knowledge gaps, including the need to better understand, for different mixoplankton functional types, sources of nutrition (use of nitrate, prey types and nutritional states), and to obtain vital rates (e.g., growth, photosynthesis, ingestion, factors affecting photo’ versus phago’ -trophy). It is now possible to revisit and re-classify protistan ‘phytoplankton’ and ‘zooplankton’ in extant databases of plankton life forms so as to clarify their roles in marine ecosystems.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1066-5234
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 March 2023
Date of Acceptance:	17 February 2023
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2023 16:21
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/157646

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