MixoExplorer

MixoExplorer is a simulation model that enables exploration of the impact of environmental conditions on a marine plankton food web under the traditional (phytoplankton-zooplankton) versus new (including mixoplankton) paradigm of marine ecology.

The traditional paradigm describes interactions between phytoplankton (‘producers’) that are photosynthetic (using light and inorganic nutrients, such as nitrate and ammonium) and the zooplankton (‘consumers’) that predate upon them. Mixoplankton are organisms that perform both photosynthesis and predation; they are thus both producers and consumers. For more information, visit www.mixotroph.org

MixoExplorer provides a platform to examine the consequences of including alternative types of mixoplankton – non-constitutive mixoplankton and constitutive mixoplankton.

Non-Constitutive Mixoplankton (NCM) has no innate capacity to perform photosynthesis; it acquires that capability by repurposing chloroplasts it has stolen from its prey. Constitutive mixoplankton (CM) has the capability to make and maintain its own chloroplasts, in the same way that phytoplankton do.

MixoExplorer operates via a Windows OS application, Powersim Studio 10 Cockpit, which is available as a free download for installation on your PC.