Fig. 5. Grazing rate parameters as a function of size (equivalent spherical diameter, or ESD) for heterotrophic (HNF) and mixotrophic nanoflagellates that have been studied in culture.

a Specific C_max (maximum volume cleared per body volume) and b specific I_max (maximum cell volume ingested per body volume), for flagellates grazing on Prochlorococcus (Pro), Synechococcus (Syn), heterotrophic bacteria (HB), or eukaryotic prey (Euk). In both panels (legend in b), black-filled symbols indicate HNF grazers, and other color-filled symbols indicate mixotrophic grazers (both from this study and literature), including chrysophytes (Chrys), dictyochophytes (Dicty) and haptophytes (Hapt). Symbol colors indicating grazer genera are the same as in Fig. 3, but shapes indicate the type of prey (source data in Supplementary Table S4). Large symbols indicate data from this study.