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New paper shows that plankton can swim

Phytoplankton on Wetpixel

An article in Science Daily references a paper in Nature Communications that suggests that the traditional view the phytoplankton simply drifts in currents may be incorrect. A team from Oxford University and MIT has studies the phenomena of “un-mixing” or the fact that phytoplankton does not occur in uniform concentrations throughout the sea. Computer modelling was used to show that this means that the plankton must be capable of movement. (Image from Shutterstock)