A halo of water around the jellyfish gets dragged along by the animal as it moves. The layer of water closest to the jellyfish clings to the animal, with the "stickiness" of the water diminishing as it gets farther away from the jellyfish. In recent years, scientists have started to seriously consider whether collective animal movements-like plankton swimming up and down en masse-could also be contributing to currents.ĭabiri and a colleague found in 2009 that jellyfish can actually move water over distances greater than their body length just by swimming. Wind-and tide-driven currents move nutrients, heat, and salt around the ocean, and help to regulate the planet's temperature, Dabiri says. If so, this mixing may need to be accounted for in simulations of Earth's future climate, Dabiri says. (See "Sea Animals Change Climate Via Flutters and Flaps?") These collective movements might produce currents large enough to mix seawater, says study co-author John Dabiri, an engineer studying biological physics at Caltech in Pasadena. Many move up and down in the ocean in dense layers throughout the day. Plankton, tiny marine creatures often thought of as mere drifters, actually aren't always so passive. Swarms of tiny animals as small as brine shrimp-known to kids the world over as Sea-Monkeys-could have an outsize effect on ocean currents when they swim together in giant herds, according to new research.
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