Marine bacterial populations are controlled through grazing protists in a process known as bacteriovory. The relative importance of different groups of protists in this process was analysed. Surprisingly, a large proportion of presumably photosynthetic protists were shown to be mixotrophs, they can derive a significant amount of their biomass through grazing. These results are important for future consideration of the impact of protists on the marine food web and the carbon cycle.
- Mikhail V. Zubkov
- Glen A. Tarran
