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Typically turbulence mixes seawater and the things in it. Turbulence takes isolated patches of increased salt, heat, sediment, even plankton, and spreads them out so they are uniformly distributed in space. But researchers have found, contrary to previous ideas, when phytoplankton have the ability to self-propel, they don't have to disperse. Instead, turbulence can cause motile phytoplankton to aggregate and form patches! And this 'unmixing' may explain how phytoplankton concentrations become patchy in the ocean at really tiny sub-meter scales. [Source: Deep Sea News]
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