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Researchers have found that microbial communities in different regions of the Pacific Ocean displayed strikingly similar daily rhythms in their metabolism despite inhabiting extremely different habitats - the nutrient-rich waters off California and the nutrient-poor waters north of Hawaii. Furthermore, in each location, the dominant photoautotrophs - light-loving bacteria that need solar energy to help them photosynthesize food from inorganic substances - appear to initiate a cascade effect wherein the other major groups of microbes perform their metabolic activities in a coordinated and predictable way. [Source: University of Hawaii at Manoa]
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