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Amazon river plume: Where microalgae go carnivorous to win

Mikroscope photo of a water sample with plankton from the Amazon river plume
The plankton in the Amazon river plume harbors remarkable nutritional all-rounders that simultaneously perform photosynthesis and hunt for prey. The photo shows mainly dinoflagellates of the genus Triops, which are successful in doing so (Photo: IOW)

In the vast plume of the Amazon River, microscopic algae adopt a surprisingly flexible survival strategy: They combine photosynthesis with the uptake of organic matter. An international research team led by the IOW has now shown that this so-called mixotrophy becomes the dominant and most successful lifestyle in mature plume waters. The findings, which are now published in Nature’s journal “Communications Biology”, reveal a previously underappreciated mechanism shaping marine food webs and carbon cycling in one of the ocean’s largest river-influenced systems.

 

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