Researchers have observed that every day, trillions of zooplankton, many of which are smaller than a grain of rice,
As you rise to the surface to themaccumulations of other zooplankton join: copepods, salps, krill and fish larvae. At night, they remain near the surface, but with the appearance of the first rays of light, they again go into the depths. As the light in one area becomes less, they move from east to west across the Pacific, Indian, Southern and Atlantic oceans.
The researchers called this "diurnal vertical"migration" is the largest such phenomenon on the planet. They estimate that about 10 billion tons of animals make such movements every day. Some of them rise from depths of more than 1 km. During this journey, they pass through parts of the ocean where the temperature differs by tens of degrees and the pressure changes by a factor of 30. This discovery changes the way scientists think about phytoplankton - they previously thought that their behavior depended only on the current.
This affects many processes on Earth - onAt the surface of the ocean, phytoplankton absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but release most of it back into the air, often within a few days. And migrating zooplankton releases carbon deep into the ocean, where it can persist for hundreds or even thousands of years.
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