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New research shows that clusters of centimeter-long oceanic zooplankton, each beating tiny feathered legs, can, in aggregate, create powerful currents that may mix water over hundreds of meters in depth. Although the work was carried out in the lab, the finding is the first to show that migrating zooplankton - or indeed any organism - can create turbulence at a scale large enough to mix the ocean's waters. The work could alter the way ocean scientists think about global nutrient cycles like carbon, phosphate and oxygen, or even ocean currents themselves. [Source: Stanford University]
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