Competition between phytoplankton and mixotrophs leads to metabolic character displacement

Tianyi Chu, Holly V. Moeller and Kevin M. Archibald

Ecological Modelling, 2023, vol. 481, issue C

Abstract: While plankton are often characterized by metabolism as either phototrophic primary producers or heterotrophic consumers, many actually combine photosynthesis and phagotrophy within a single cell. These “mixotrophic” plankton, which play an important biogeochemical role in marine food webs, exhibit diverse metabolic strategies with varied contributions from photosynthesis and phagotrophy. Mixotrophs co-exist with specialist phototrophs and heterotrophs, competing for shared resources; yet we do not know how this competition alters a mixotroph’s metabolic strategy or impacts biogeochemistry. We constructed a mathematical model to simulate the dynamics of a planktonic community which consists of mixotrophs and their specialist phototrophic competitor, phytoplankton. Our simulation demonstrates how the presence of competing phytoplankton causes metabolic character displacement, shifting mixotrophs to a more heterotrophic niche. We find that the displacement is affected by various environmental and physiological factors. For example, this displacement effect is temperature dependent, suggesting a link between community-level competitive mechanisms and global climate change. The proposed model therefore may be used to develop a more comprehensive analysis of the competition between constitutive mixotrophs and specialist phototrophs or heterotrophs. Our model also provides a mathematical framework for predicting constitutive mixotroph survival in the context of global warming.

Keywords: Chemostat model; Constitutive mixotrophy; Metabolic trade-offs; Mixoplankton; Phenotypic plasticity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:481:y:2023:i:c:s0304380023000595

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110331

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