Northwest Dive Club

I have been happily out of the loop for several years while enjoying my retirement. An article in the April Scientific American titled " The Perfect Beast" shook me from my "dogmatic slumber". The article dealt with mixotrophs, organisms which both photosynthesize and consume other organisms. I remember hearing about such critters decades ago and having them dismissed as one of nature's oddities. The article claims they are much more common and much more important than previously believed. It doesn't take much imagination to realize how this could disrupt our concept of the ocean's food web. If the author is right, mixotrophs are responsible for:
- Toxic algae blooms that are responsible for paralytic seafood poisoning. (Red Tide)
- Algae blooms that cause massive fish kills in Chesapeake Bay.
- The thick algae blooms which, while non-toxic, block light below. I remember diving in such a bloom on a bright August day in Barkley Sound. The bloom was so thick that it was virtually a night dive. Just diving through it creeped me out.
- Food production for fish.
- CO2 absorption in the ocean, hence global warming.
I encourage those interested to seek out the article.
-Curt

Thank you for sharing that. You wouldn't happen to have a link to the article?

Hi Waynne,

Scientific American seems to keep their newer articles behind a pay wall; the link to this article leads to a very short "preview": https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... he-planet/
Not so with at least some of their older material. Here is a similar article by the same author from November 2016: https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... he-oceans/

Retrospectively yours,
Alex

Alex: Thank you. I read the article in my dead tree copy of the magazine. I have been trying unsuccessfully to find the link to respond to Waynne's request.
-Curt