Mixotrophy creates smooth transitions between using organic or inorganic C pools depending on environmental conditions, blurring the lines between producers and consumers (Worden et al. 2015). The simplified view that organisms with chloroplasts are only capable of photosynthesis and vice versa needs to be revised in order to do this metabolic plasticity justice. An additional functional group of plankton, one that is capable of phototrophy and phagotrophy, needs to be established to reduce the current underestimation of biomass and energy transfer to higher trophic levels (Ward and Follows, 2016). Red indicates fluxes and populations that are affected by considering this process.

• Worden, A. Z., M. J. Follows, S. J. Giovannoni, S. Wilken, A. E. Zimmerman, and P. J. Keeling (2015) "Rethinking the marine carbon cycle: Factoring in the multifarious lifestyles of microbes". Science, 347: 1257594. doi:10.1126/science.125.
• Ward, B. A., and M. J. Follows (2016) "Marine mixotrophy increases trophic transfer efficiency, mean organism size, and vertical carbon flux". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 113: 2958–2963. doi:10.1073/pnas.1517118113.