Marine mixotrophy increases trophic transfer efficiency, mean organism size, and vertical carbon flux
Name
Ward-2016-Marine mixotrophy in.pdf
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1.53 MB
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Author(s)
Ward, Ben A.
Follows, Michael J
Date Issued
March 2016
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Ward, Ben A., and Michael J. Follows. “Marine Mixotrophy Increases Trophic Transfer Efficiency, Mean Organism Size, and Vertical Carbon Flux.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113.11 (2016): 2958–2963.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Mixotrophic plankton, which combine the uptake of inorganic resources and the ingestion of living prey, are ubiquitous in marine ecosystems, but their integrated biogeochemical impacts remain unclear. We address this issue by removing the strict distinction between phytoplankton and zooplankton from a global model of the marine plankton food web. This simplification allows the emergence of a realistic trophic network with increased fidelity to empirical estimates of plankton community structure and elemental stoichiometry, relative to a system in which autotrophy and heterotrophy are mutually exclusive. Mixotrophy enhances the transfer of biomass to larger sizes classes further up the food chain, leading to an approximately threefold increase in global mean organism size and an ∼35% increase in sinking carbon flux.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517118113
