Darwin's 150-year-old theory vindicated...by jellyfish

[Dimmauk]

Fauna play key role in circulating seas, says study
AFP
9 mins ago


PARIS (AFP) – Creatures large and small may play an unsuspectedly important role in the stirring of ocean waters, according to a study released Wednesday.

So-called ocean mixing entails the transfer of cold and warm waters between the equator and poles, as well as between the icy, nutrient-rich depths and the sun-soaked top layer.

It plays a crucial part in marine biodiversity and, scientists now suspect, in maintaining Earth's climate.

The notion that fish and other sea swimmers might somehow contribute significantly to currents as they moved forward was first proposed in the mid-1950s by Charles Darwin, grandson of the the legendary evolutionary biologist of the same name.

But this was dismissed by modern scientists as a fishy story.

In 1960s, experiments compared the wake turbulence created by sea creatures with overall ocean turbulence. They showed that the whirls kicked up by microscopic plankton or even fish quickly dissipated in dense, viscous water.

On this evidence, sea creatures seemed to contribute nothing to ocean mixing. The clear conclusion was that the only drivers of note were shifting winds and tides, tied to the gravitational tug-of-war within our Solar System.

But the new study, published in the British science journal Nature, goes a long way toward rehabilitating the 20th century Darwin, and uses the quiet pulse of the jellyfish to prove the case.

Authors Kakani Katija and Joan Dabiri of the California Institute of Technology devised a laser-based system for measuring the movement of liquid.

They donned scuba gear and then released dye in the path of swarm of jellyfish in a saltwater lake on the Pacific island of Palau.

The video images they captured showed a remarkable amount of cold water followed the jellyfish as they moved vertically, from deeper chillier waters toward the warmer layers of the surface.

Katija and Dabiri say the 1960s investigators had simply been looking in the wrong place.

They had been on the alert for waves or eddies -- signs that the sea was being stirred up in the creatures' wake -- rather than vertical displacement of water.

What determines the amount of water that is mixed is the size and shape of the animal, its population and migratory patterns.

Churning of the seas is a factor in the carbon cycle.

At the surface, plankton gobble up carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis. When they die, their carbon-rich remains may fall gently to the ocean floor, effectively storing the CO2 for millennia -- or, alternatively, may be brought back to upper layers by sea currents.

William Dewar of Florida State University in a commentary, also published in Nature, said the new paper challenged conventional thinking.

"Should the overall idea of significant biogenic mixing survive detailed scrutiny, climate science will have experienced a paradigm shift," he said.

[Blabj]

You're probably going to get banned for this thread.

[Dimmauk]

You're probably going to get banned for this thread.

Why? This is interesting news to me. I studied Marine Biology and Oceanography.

[Mizango]

Sup Bitches.

Common knowledge , nothing special to see here.

[Shiro]

Darwin's 150-year-old theory

mid-1950s

???

[Eaglestrike]

???

Grandson.

[Blabj]

I was gonna say, I read that and thought "wut." too at first.

[hagun]

Sounds like a bunch of lies to me. Seems interesting though but I really don't see the implications of this or maybe I am not understanding something. How does this change things on a scale that's noteworthy? Or how can this be used to complement anything profound? Likewise, how is it that the scientists in the 60s missed such a simple observation? Dissappointed it wasn't the original Darwin. False advertisement.

[Mizango]

Sounds like a bunch of lies to me. Seems interesting though but I really don't see the implications of this or maybe I am not understanding something. How does this change things on a scale that's noteworthy? Or how can this be used to complement anything profound? Likewise, how is it that the scientists in the 60s missed such a simple observation? Dissappointed it wasn't the original Darwin. False advertisement.

Lies how? Science is proof run, not the idea of Merlin the magical wizard.

Insignificant to you perhaps, significant to those of us in the science field.

[Penthesilea]

Grandson.

Except it was the grandson's theory not the grandfathers? so...

Darwin's 150-year-old theory

mid-1950s

???

[Jer]

Sounds like a bunch of lies to me.

That water follows animals as they move up? And the bigger they are, the more water moves? Like Miz said, it should be common knowledge.

Likewise, how is it that the scientists in the 60s missed such a simple observation?

Article says they were looking for horizontal displacement of water, so they neglected vertical.

[Dimmauk]

???

LOL Typo.

This news plus the of the giant Alaskan Algae bloom, is pretty interesting. Especially when it comes to the Subject of Global Warming and the Warming of the Oceans.

[Mizango]

Also, not turning this into a "Fuck Jesus" thread but anytime we get a science thread going some bitch comes trying to convert us to wizardry. We keep it on subject, have a nice little Q & A segment and we can keep it civil.

So far we've only had one bump in our Astrophysics thread. Follow that template and we should be good. If not I dont see this thread last to page 2 before all hell breaks loose, which would be a damn shame really.

[Mizango]

Also, not back seat modding in any form or fashion, I am merely distributing warning labels before we degrade into a Science > Religion debate. Which I personally wouldn't mind but we as a community can do without for a while lol.

Just making that clear because last time I asked nicely I got penalized.

[Stiker]

PARIS (AFP) – Creatures large and small may play an unsuspectedly important role in the stirring of ocean waters, according to a study released Wednesday.

So-called ocean mixing entails the transfer of cold and warm waters between the equator and poles, as well as between the icy, nutrient-rich depths and the sun-soaked top layer.

It plays a crucial part in marine biodiversity and, scientists now suspect, in maintaining Earth's climate.

Everything else for the most part makes since to me, until I get to the bold. How would this maintain the Earth's climate?

The article doesn't really seem to elaborate this point. Sounds important enough, but I really have no idea how that would work.

I can see it the other way around though -- that is, Earth gets warmer, waters get warmer, but yeah I'm sure I'm missing something here.

[Rafbacca]

I guess he implication of this news would be rather simple. If we continue to pollute our seas causing a decrease in sealife, the loss of thier natural pattern of benificial migration patterns can contribute to this whole "Global Warming" thing. Just sayin'

[Tristam]

Sounds like a bunch of lies to me. Seems interesting though but I really don't see the implications of this or maybe I am not understanding something. How does this change things on a scale that's noteworthy? Or how can this be used to complement anything profound? Likewise, how is it that the scientists in the 60s missed such a simple observation? Dissappointed it wasn't the original Darwin. False advertisement.

The force of the turbulence produced by this mixing is reported to be on the order of tides and winds. It's kind of like observing someone mixing a drink, but you don't know how they're mixing it, or you can't see how they're doing it. This is one of the ways by which the ocean is "mixed". Furthermore, it's as far as I can tell (and the authors) the first known biological mechanism that can introduce such a large scale force in the oceans. They also note that downward oceanic transport can be enhanced by this mechanism, with particular relevance to carbon sequestration in marine environments.

[Dimmauk]

Also, not back seat modding in any form or fashion, I am merely distributing warning labels before we degrade into a Science > Religion debate. Which I personally wouldn't mind but we as a community can do without for a while lol.

Just making that clear because last time I asked nicely I got penalized.

It bothers me that some people think just mentioning Charles Darwin means auto-ban. This isnt a thread with a one word post of "Darwinism" This was a real news subject that is interesting to people that study Marine Biology, or anyone in science community.

[zoobernut]

I find this really interesting to consider with relation to the algae blooms and the movement of food through deep water to shallow. It definitely has some implications about the evolution of the creatures and where they typically spend their time in the water table.

Edit: Also about the climate control thing, a lot of the weather we experience in the world is due to temperature differences in the surface of the oceans. Water has a high specific heat higher than air so it has a lot of influence on the temperature of the air around it which then changes atmospheric air flow which effects weather.

[Wintermute]

Also, not turning this into a "Fuck Jesus" thread but anytime we get a science thread going some bitch comes trying to convert us to wizardry.

If I were a Wizard I'd use the Magic for Science, just to spite the other Wizards.

The story is pretty interesring.