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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Chemical Ecology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2024.1505037
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Ecological Stoichiometry View all articles

Mixotrophic protists and ecological stoichiometry: connecting homeostasis and nutrient limitation from organisms to communities

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
  • 2 Institute for Research in Biodiversity and the Environment, National University of Comahue, Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
  • 3 Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, School of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
  • 4 Department of Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States
  • 5 Department of Marine Biology and Oceanography, Institute of Marine Sciences, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  • 6 Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Sea, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 7 Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In recent decades, there has been a growing recognition that mixotrophy, the ability to utilize both phototrophy and phagotrophy, is more common among plankton than previously assumed. Even though mixotrophs can become highly abundant, especially under nutrient limitation, and significantly alter nutrient cycling and food-web dynamics due to their dual nutritional modes, a comprehensive synthesis from a stoichiometric perspective is still lacking. We conducted a systematic literature review in which we identified over 130 studies that directly relate nutrient ratios to mixotrophic protists at the organism to community scale. By conceptually linking mixotrophy with the concept of ecological stoichiometry, we provide insights into (1) the role of mixotrophic metabolism and nutrient limitation in regulating cellular homeostasis, (2) mixotroph abundance and community scale responses to nutrient limitation, and (3) the specific case of harmful algal bloom forming mixotrophs. On the organism scale, the existing literature points towards a stabilizing effect of mixotrophic metabolism on elemental composition, and the use of grazing as a compensation mechanism under stoichiometric imbalances in the water and prey. At the community scale, mixotrophs were found to increase in abundance relative to strict autotrophs and heterotrophs in nutrient-limited communities, and provide beneficial food for zooplankton grazers by maintaining relatively low and stable stoichiometry. Furthermore, global-scale models and studies of harmful algal blooms reveal the increasing importance of mixotrophs under climate changehighlighting the need for continued research addressing the interactions between mixotrophs and dynamic stoichiometry to understand the impacts of mixotrophs on global nutrient cycles.

    Keywords: mixotrophy, protist, stoichiometry, nutrient limitation, C:N:P ratios, Homeostasis, Food Web Dynamics, harmful algal blooms

    Received: 02 Oct 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Schenone, Aarons, García-Martínez, Happe and Redoglio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Luca Schenone, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

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