Study finds body size of marine plankton, currents keys to dispersal in ocean



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Results of the study are being published this week in Nature Communications.

“Organisms are constantly looking for a niche in which they can survive and there are pros and cons to being small,” said James Watson, an Oregon State University oceanographer and co-author on the study. “When you’re small, you are more abundant and you ride the currents further, which means you have more opportunities to find a good spatial niche.

“The down side is that when you’re small, you get beat up a lot. You get eaten by bigger organisms. There are advantages to being small and fast, but there also are advantages to being big and strong.”

Continue reading at Oregon State University

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