The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump

The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump

Mitra, Aditee ... et. al.-- 11 pages, 6 figures

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Main Authors: Mitra, Aditee, Calbet, Albert, Zubkov, Mikhail
Format: artículo biblioteca
Published: European Geosciences Union
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/93693
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spelling dig-icm-es-10261-936932020-12-09T17:46:12Z The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump Mitra, Aditee Calbet, Albert Zubkov, Mikhail Mitra, Aditee ... et. al.-- 11 pages, 6 figures The traditional view of the planktonic food web describes consumption of inorganic nutrients by photoautotrophic phytoplankton, which in turn supports zooplankton and ultimately higher trophic levels. Pathways centred on bacteria provide mechanisms for nutrient recycling. This structure lies at the foundation of most models used to explore biogeochemical cycling, functioning of the biological pump, and the impact of climate change on these processes. We suggest an alternative new paradigm, which sees the bulk of the base of this food web supported by protist plankton communities that are mixotrophic-combining phototrophy and phagotrophy within a single cell. The photoautotrophic eukaryotic plankton and their heterotrophic microzooplankton grazers dominate only during the developmental phases of ecosystems (e.g. spring bloom in temperate systems). With their flexible nutrition, mixotrophic protists dominate in more-mature systems (e.g. temperate summer, established eutrophic systems and oligotrophic systems); the more-stable water columns suggested under climate change may also be expected to favour these mixotrophs. We explore how such a predominantly mixotrophic structure affects microbial trophic dynamics and the biological pump. The mixotroph-dominated structure differs fundamentally in its flow of energy and nutrients, with a shortened and potentially more efficient chain from nutrient regeneration to primary production. Furthermore, mixotrophy enables a direct conduit for the support of primary production from bacterial production. We show how the exclusion of an explicit mixotrophic component in studies of the pelagic microbial communities leads to a failure to capture the true dynamics of the carbon flow. In order to prevent a misinterpretation of the full implications of climate change upon biogeochemical cycling and the functioning of the biological pump, we recommend inclusion of multi-nutrient mixotroph models within ecosystem studies. © 2014 Author(s) A. Calbet was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain through project PROTOS (CTM2009-08783). A. Mitra was supported in part by project EURO-BASIN (Ref. 264933, 7FP, European Union). D. K. Stoecker was partially supported by NSF award 1031344. J. Hawkey assisted with graphic preparation. A. Mitra thanks Rohan Mitra-Flynn for his continuing support. This is contribution number 4789 from UMCES. The University of Dundee is a registered charity, no. SC010596 Peer Reviewed 2014-02 2014-03-14T13:04:17Z artículo http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 doi: 10.5194/bg-11-995-2014 issn: 1726-4170 e-issn: 1726-4189 Biogeosciences 11: 995-1005 (2014) http://hdl.handle.net/10261/93693 10.5194/bg-11-995-2014 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-995-2014 open European Geosciences Union
institution ICM ES
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country España
countrycode ES
component Bibliográfico
access En linea
databasecode dig-icm-es
tag biblioteca
region Europa del Sur
libraryname Biblioteca del ICM España
description Mitra, Aditee ... et. al.-- 11 pages, 6 figures
format artículo
author Mitra, Aditee
Calbet, Albert
Zubkov, Mikhail
spellingShingle Mitra, Aditee
Calbet, Albert
Zubkov, Mikhail
The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump
author_facet Mitra, Aditee
Calbet, Albert
Zubkov, Mikhail
author_sort Mitra, Aditee
title The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump
title_short The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump
title_full The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump
title_fullStr The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump
title_full_unstemmed The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump
title_sort role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump
publisher European Geosciences Union
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/93693
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AT mitraaditee roleofmixotrophicprotistsinthebiologicalcarbonpump
AT calbetalbert roleofmixotrophicprotistsinthebiologicalcarbonpump
AT zubkovmikhail roleofmixotrophicprotistsinthebiologicalcarbonpump
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