Word: zooplankton
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...research, published in the journal Nature, would suggest that the mass movement of marine animals - even tiny zooplankton like krill - may play a significant role in churning the ocean. It may help mix cooler water with warm, and disperse salts, nutrients and pollutants across the various layers of the ocean, which is critical to the strength of ocean currents and the health of the marine ecosystems. Although ocean-mixing is largely attributed to winds and ocean tides, scientists say those factors cannot account for all the energy required to power, for example, the complete circulation of cold and warm water...
...some the size of Rhode Island - so oceanographers have suspected that their movements may cause significant ocean-mixing. But despite numerous attempts, the phenomenon has not been observed since the 2006 study. "Instead, many people studying mixing have not seen large increases in mixing during times krill or other zooplankton migrate," says Michael Gregg, an oceanographer at the University of Washington. (See pictures of aliens of the deep...
Indeed, the bottom of the lake, a gray moonscape punctuated by boulders, rock-slides and l00-ft.-high sandstone walls, was teeming with life. Clouds of minute zooplankton drifted across the sub's windows like snowflakes. Burrowing burbot fish dug deep trenches in the silt, while sculpin fish created dimple-like holes as they nestled into the lake floor...
David Kennedy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's scientific-support coordinator, predicts a fairly temporary setback. He expects a 25% reduction in the amount of zooplankton, a fundamental link in the food chain of the sea. That could hurt many varieties of fish. But Kennedy foresees relatively little damage to larger marine mammals, such as seals, dolphins and killer whales. If weather conditions stay favorable, most smaller animals may escape serious harm as well...
...have taken root near small ponds. At the waters' edge, Pacific tree frogs and salamanders now flourish. Large bodies of water like Spirit Lake, which was filled with organic debris and robbed of its oxygen by accompanying bacteria during the eruption, have made even more rapid recoveries. Algae, zooplankton and freshwater crustaceans have all recolonized the lake, prompting authorities from the state department of game to push for the restocking of such game fish as rainbow and brown trout...