 One of the main criteria for an aggregation of plankton to be considered a thin layer is that the increased concentration at a certain depth of the water column must appear in subsequently measured profiles.However, thin layers are dynamic and horizontally extensive so their persistence cannot be defined using multiple measurements at only one location.A study on the Karenia brevis algae responsible for more recent and increasingly longer red tide blooms shows that the cellular gene expression patterns are extremely diverse which means that this particular species of plankton are more resilient because they adapt well to changing conditions.