#Mixotrophs: Neither Plants nor Animals, These Ocean Organisms Protect Their Ecosystems against Heat Waves https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/neither-plants-nor-animals-these-ocean-organisms-protect-their-ecosystems/

Widespread #ciliate and #dinoflagellate #mixotrophy may contribute to ecosystem resilience in a #subarctic sea https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/ame/v90/p1-21/ by Suzanne Strom et al.

"these adaptable mixotrophs can be vital to the entire Gulf of Alaska ecosystem in #HeatWaves because they help to mediate a major consequence of marine #warming: increased stratification"

Sunday #Plankton #Factoid 🦠🦐

Mixotrophs are both #phytoplankton and #zooplankton. They use autotrophic (photosynthesis) and heterotrophic (nom nom) pathways for energy. A hot topic right now for carbon cycling, though hardly new (it's key to Azam's Microbial Loop) with many protists (flagellates but also ciliates with symbiotic algae) using this strategy, but we find it more common than thought with even some picocyanobacteria showing #mixotrophy.

A nice read 📖 here: https://academic.oup.com/plankt/article/41/4/375/5531601