Mixoplankton – marine organisms that break the rules! The conceptual basis upon which management tools for our ocean, seas and coasts operate are out-of-date and do not adequately address current challenges. We spoke to Dr Aditee Mitra and Dr Xabier Irigoien about implications for ocean health, policies, aquaculture and fisheries under climate change in this UN Ocean Decade. The
way marine systems have historically been thought to function closely parallels that of land-based systems, where plants produce food and animals consume it. Thus, in marine systems, the traditional view is that phytoplankton (microalgae) produce food which zooplankton consume, which in turn, are consumed by larger animals through to fish. “Actually, the situation is quite different,” says Dr Mitra, project coordinator of MixITiN. “What have traditionally been labelled as primary producers are also often www.euresearcher.com
consumers, and what have been labelled as consumers are also primary producers – life is complicated!” These organisms that combine plant-like and animal-like characteristics in the one cell are termed mixoplankton. “In essence, over decades of research, mixoplankton have been mislabelled and misunderstood,” she explains. This forms the backdrop to the work of the MixITiN project. The MixITiN project focused on the development and deployment of new research methods for application in ocean
sciences to establish a better picture of how mixoplankton contribute to marine ecology. This interdisciplinary project encompassed diverse approaches, including laboratory and field work drawing on a range of disciplines, from molecular biology right through to coarse grain systems biology techniques. The project’s wider goal – an improved understanding of indicators impacting ocean health, has major implications for the design of ocean ocean management policies and planning for a sustainable future.
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