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Diatom Movement
Adult diatoms are truly planktonic; they have no mechanisms for swimming against water currents. Given the fact that all kinds of marine organisms build up boundary layers of depleted nutrients and concentrated wastes in the waters near them, absolute inability to move relative to nearby water is an increasingly desperate situation. Without the ability to swim, buoyancy control -- sinking -- may be the only means for diatoms to control their position and escape nutrient-depleted boundary layers in the water nearby.
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copyright John Becker 1996.