Transfers production between otherwise weakly linked channels.
Examples:
- mixotroph connecting primary production and predation
- microbial loop organisms
- filter feeders
- host–symbiont complexes
Operational definition
Framework-defined network role.
An organism, guild, or process that transfers energy and matter between food-web compartments that would otherwise be weakly connected or inaccessible to one another.
Examples include:
- microbial-loop organisms eaten by larger consumers;
- mixotrophs linking photosynthesis and predation;
- filter feeders connecting suspended production to benthic systems;
- migratory organisms moving production between ecosystems.
It is a network function, not a fixed trophic level.