Journal of Marine Science and Engineering Review Plasticity and Multiplicity of Trophic Modes in the Dinoflagellate Karlodinium and Their Pertinence to Population Maintenance and Bloom Dynamics Huijiao Yang 1,2,3, Zhangxi Hu 1,2,3,* and Ying Zhong Tang 1,2,3,* 1 CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China;
[email protected] (H.Y.) 2 Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China 3 Centre for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China * Correspondence:
[email protected] (Z.H.);
[email protected] (Y.Z.T.); Tel.: +86-532-8289-6098 Abstract: As the number of mixotrophic protists has been increasingly documented, “mixoplankton”, a third category separated from the traditional categorization of plankton into “phytoplankton” and “zooplankton”, has become a new paradigm and research hotspot in aquatic plankton ecology. While species of dinoflagellates are a dominant group among all recorded members of mixoplankton, the trophic modes of Karlodinium, a genus constituted of cosmopolitan toxic species, were reviewed due to their representative features as mixoplankton and harmful algal blooms (HABs)-causing dinoflagellates. Among at least 15 reported species in the genus, three have been intensively studied for their trophic modes, and all found to be phagotrophic. Their phagotrophy exhibits multiple characteristics: (1) omnivority, i.e., they can ingest a variety of preys in many forms; (2) flexibility in phagotrophic mechanisms, i.e., they can ingest small preys by direct engulfment and much bigger preys by myzocytosis using a peduncle; (3) cannibalism, i.e., species including at least K.