Planktonic prey size selection reveals an emergent keystone predator effect and niche partitioning.

ABSTRACT: Marine herbivorous protists are often the dominant grazers of primary production. We developed a size-based model with flexible size-based grazing to encapsulate taxonomic and behavioral diversity. We examined individual and combined grazing impacts by three consumer sizes that span the size range of protistan grazers- 5, 50, and 200 μm-on a size-structured phytoplankton community. Prey size choice and dietary niche width varied with consumer size and with co-existence of other consumers. When all consumer sizes were present, distinct dietary niches emerged, with a range of consumer-prey size ratios spanning from 25:1 to 0.4:1, encompassing the canonical 10:1 often assumed. Grazing on all phytoplankton size classes maximized the phytoplankton size diversity through the keystone predator ef

SUBMITTER: Taniguchi DAA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9925011 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature