Mixotrophs are important components of the bacterioplankton, phytoplankton,
microzooplankton, and (sometimes) zooplankton in coastal and oceanic waters. Bacterivory …

Marine zooplankton comprise a phylogenetically and functionally diverse assemblage of
protistan and metazoan consumers that occupy multiple trophic levels in pelagic food webs …

Protist plankton are major members of open‐water marine food webs. Traditionally divided
between phototrophic phytoplankton and phagotrophic zooplankton, recent research shows …

Arranging organisms into functional groups aids ecological research by grouping organisms
(irrespective of phylogenetic origin) that interact with environmental factors in similar ways …

BACKGROUND Marine ecosystems are composed of a diverse array of life forms, the
majority of which are unicellular—archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes. The power of these …

Many protist plankton are mixotrophs, combining phototrophy and phagotrophy. Their role in
freshwater and marine ecology has emerged as a major developing feature of plankton …

The traditional view of the planktonic food web describes consumption of inorganic nutrients
by photoautotrophic phytoplankton, which in turn supports zooplankton and ultimately higher …

Mixotrophic plankton, which combine the uptake of inorganic resources and the ingestion of
living prey, are ubiquitous in marine ecosystems, but their integrated biogeochemical …

The classic portrayal of plankton is dominated by phytoplanktonic primary producers and
zooplanktonic secondary producers. In reality, many if not most plankton traditionally …

Planktonic organisms play crucial roles in oceanic food webs and global biogeochemical
cycles,. Most of our knowledge about the ecological impact of large zooplankton stems from …