OMMIX: Food-Web structure and carbon budget in a coastal area off Central Chile (36?S): Influence of mixotrophy and omnivory

In most of our idealized concepts of food-web, we tend to separate profoundly between the photosynthetic and the heterotrophic organisms in the predatory food-web. This division is not necessarily adequate descriptions of reality since there are known organisms able to combine nutrition types, and complicate our traditional view about aquatic food-webs.

One complicating factor that is receiving increasing attention is the influence of ?mixotrophs?, organisms that defy traditional trophic concepts classification by both photosynthesizing and grazing. In addition, ?omnivory?, the consumption of resources from more than one trophic level, is a widespread behavior among planktonic organisms. Evidences for shifting trophic roles of various types of planktonic organisms and multiple levels of feeding interactions within mixotrophs and omnivorous components, which typically have been regarded as a single trophic level have increased during the last decade.