Jellyfish: The Ultimate Eco-System Engineers.

JELLY FISH ARE ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS reported in Hakai Magazine 19 February 2020 and bioRxiv 8 November 2019, doi.org/10.1101/784173. Tides and winds keep water flowing in most coastal regions, but in some sheltered areas among mangroves, tides and winds may not penetrate enough to keep the water moving. Scientists at University of South Florida who were studying the mangroves of Long Key, Florida have found a peculiar jellyfish named Cassiopea which improves water flow in sheltered areas, which is essential in keeping nutrients available and maintaining water quality for the plants and animals living in them. Cassiopea is an unusual jellyfish in that it sits upside down on the sea floor with its tentacles projecting into the water. These jellyfish constantly pulse their tentacles and this movement is enough to create a constant flow of water. The research team studied the flow of water around the jellyfish in their lab and in the natural environment, and estimated that at the usual population density on the sea floor, the jellyfish generate enough flow to turn over a one metre water column every 15 minutes. This keeps nutrients and dissolved gases flowing, and also helps flush away salt left in the mangrove soil. The researchers concluded, “This study demonstrates that the upside-down jellyfish represents a previously unrecognized ecosystem engineer that can affect primary productivity, nutrient distribution, and alter new habitats as their range is expanding”. Eric Wolanski, a coastal oceanographer at James Cook University in Australia commented: “It’s quite clear that there are no other species that create as much turbulence in the mangroves”. Link: Hakai    ED. COM. While terms such as “ecosystem engineering” and “ecosystem services” are regularly used by evolutionary biologists, but if they believe in a theory that living things came into being by vast ages of struggle and competition, and survival of the fittest at the expense of the unfit, they cannot explain how these ‘engineered’ interdependent systems came about. The type of mutually beneficial interaction seen with this jellyfish and other creatures living amongst mangroves, is a reminder that God created whole functioning ecosystems with completely different organisms living and working together from the beginning. Creation Research.