A dataset on trophic modes of aquatic protists.

Lisa Schneider,Fabrice Not,Per Hansen,Nikola Medic,Kerstin Klemm,Joost Mansour,Willem Stolte,Konstantinos Anestis,Anna Anschütz,Jon Martin,Uwe John,Nathalie Gypens

doi:10.3897/bdj.8.e56648

Abstract

BackgroundAn important functional trait of organisms is their trophic mode. It determines their position within food webs, as well as their function within an ecosystem. For the better part of the 20th century, aquatic protist communities were thought to consist mainly of producers (phytoplankton) and consumers (protozooplankton). Phytoplankton cover their energy requirements through photosynthesis (phototrophy), while protozooplankton graze on prey and organic particles (phagotrophy). However, over the past decades, it was shown that another trophic group (mixoplankton) comprise a notable part of aquatic protist communities. Mixoplankton employ a third trophic mode by combining phototrophy and phagotrophy (mixotrophy). Due to the historical dichotomy, it is not straightforward to gain adequate and correct information on the trophic mode of aquatic protists. Long hours of literature research or expert knowledge are needed to correctly assign trophic modes. Additionally, aquatic protists also have a long history of undergoing taxonomic changes which make it difficult to compare past and present literature. While WoRMS, the World Register of Marine Species, keeps track of the taxonomic changes and assigns each species a unique AphiaID that can be linked to its various historic and present taxonomic hierarchy, there is currently no machine-readable database to query aquatic protists for their trophic modes.New informationThis paper describes a dataset that was submitted to WoRMS and links aquatic protist taxa, with a focus on marine taxa, to their AphiaID and their trophic mode. The bulk of the data used for this dataset stems from (routine) monitoring stations in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The data were augmented and checked against state-of-the-art knowledge on mixoplankton taxa by consulting literature and experts. Thus, this dataset provides a first attempt to make the trophic mode of aquatic protists easily accessible in both a human- and machine-readable format.

Highlights

Protists form the base of aquatic ecosystems by providing food for higher trophic levels
This paper describes a dataset that was submitted to WoRMS and links aquatic protist taxa, with a focus on marine taxa, to their AphiaID and their trophic mode
For the better part of the 20th century, aquatic protist communities were divided into producers, the phytoplankton and grazers, thezooplankton (Flynn et al 2013)

Summary

Background

An important functional trait of organisms is their trophic mode. It determines their position within food webs, as well as their function within an ecosystem. For the better part of the 20th century, aquatic protist communities were thought to consist mainly of producers (phytoplankton) and consumers (protozooplankton) Phytoplankton cover their energy requirements through photosynthesis (phototrophy), while protozooplankton graze on prey and organic particles (phagotrophy). While WoRMS, the World Register of Marine Species, keeps track of the taxonomic changes and assigns each species a unique AphiaID that can be linked to its various historic and present taxonomic hierarchy, there is currently no machine-readable database to query aquatic protists for their trophic modes. The data were augmented and checked against state-of-the-art knowledge on mixoplankton taxa by consulting literature and experts This dataset provides a first attempt to make the trophic mode of aquatic protists accessible in both a humanand machine-readable format. Phytoplankton, protozooplankton, mixoplankton, trophic mode, functional traits, functional biodiversity

Introduction

Findings

Sampling methods