The generation of zonal flows by small-scale drift-Alfvén (SSDA) modes is investigated. It is shown that these zonal flows can be generated by a monochromatic wave packet of SSDA modes propagating in the ion diamagnetic drift direction. The corresponding zonal-flow instability resembles a hydrodynamic one. Its growth rate depends on the spectrum purity of the wave packet; it decreases for relatively weak spectrum broadening and the instability turns into a resonant one, and eventually is suppressed, as the broadening increases. A general conclusion of this work is that the SSDA modes are less effective for driving zonal flows than standard drift modes.

Possibility of existence of neoclassical magnetic microislands (island width smaller than the ion Larmor radius) in a tokamak in the banana regime is shown. The rotation frequency of such islands is found. It is shown that for the case of positive electron temperature gradient, the bootstrap current destabilizes the microislands while the polarization current leads to their stabilization. Maximally possible neoclassical microisland width is estimated.