How biodiverse is this extremely biodiverse ecosystem after 3 years?
Vložit
- čas přidán 30. 04. 2023
- We take a look at the ecosphere that was made with maximum biodiversity in mind. The last update was two and a half years ago. Is this closed ecosystem still very biodiverse after three years? What secrets has this three year old closed ecosystem to reveal?
Enjoy!
Merch:
www.bonfire.com/lifeinjars
bit.ly/3v7Cu83
Patreon:
bit.ly/3vHtZAd
Patrons: Claudia Watrin, Justin Duch, Connor Johnson, Cherry's Jubilee Costume and Design, Lisa L. Altizer, Quim Gil
Music:
On the rocks - TrackTribe
Put a shark in it
Make a big one, put urself in it
@@cameronbelanger2525 I’m not a shark idiot
Don’t be stupid! A shark would probably shift the natural balance that has evolved in this Jar. I think if anything should be added to the Jar it must be something simple like a dog or maybe even a hippopotimus as they would at least strugle a litle bit to eat all those small microorganisms.
@Uga Boga how about two sharks?
@@ugaboga9829 how is a hippo simple? They're very territorial and will most likey kill on sight of anything within their territory i.e the jar. A cat is a better choice than a hippo, not only because they can build dams, but also because they mainly feed on micro organisms like krills and plankton.
Such a mood booster! "...almost 3cm long, in inches that is a different number." Had me cracking up. Looking forward to the next update.
Technology Connections had the exact same line like a few weeks ago! Got me both times I heard it. Great delivery.
@@Broken_robot1986 Steve Mould also used it a few days ago.
Yeah, I noticed that, is it becoming a meme?!
I dont get it
@@Broken_robot1986can u explain to me this joke
That dragonfly nymph was actually horrific. Imagine being trapped in a jar with that!
Its kind of like the movie alien
Dragonfly and lady bugs are like that. Cannibalistic horrors in water.
Can't wait to be 50 years old for the 24 year review on this ecosphere
I'm expecting they're entering the stone age, since isolation could make the evolution process faster
It's going to be epic. There should be human life in there by then
@@Last_Chance. lol
And they're going to be in the middle of a World Jar War. Trench warfare style, gas, and everything.
The ostracods would have a full on advanced civilization
Dragonfly nymphs are at the very top of the pond food chain, absolutely ferocious predators. My guess is it gobbled up all of your diversity before you fished it out.
Woow really ? Soo quick 😮
Actually it's more likely that the plants that died decreased the PH of the water too much for anything to survive.
Although the nymph probably didn't help 😂
@@ThePixelPear How would one go about stopping the decrease in PH of water as a result of plants dying?
@@jasonespinoza6372 Carbonate rocks, maybe
Something I've always thought with closed ecosystems is when a plant finally fails and dies it releases a lot of the essential nutrients first into the water that can cause a bloom in algae or other plants that can change the ph of the water enough to affect the animals. And only the hardiest multi purpose animals can survive.
This is a good point. Another possibility occurs to me. The video mentioned how over times biodiversity seems to decrease across all of his closed ecospheres. It could be that certain elements of ecological cycles are missing - fungi, animals, or plants. Whereas in nature everything gets recycled, it is possible that in the jars, over time more and more nutrients get locked up in some configuration. Hence, putting an initially really diverse ecosystem in the jar may have hastened the locking up of these nutrients. Understanding the natural ecological relationships outside of the jars might help to replicate them inside and lead to longer lasting closed ecosystems. Adding or removing a few specific species might be enough to keep them going much longer.
The Great Filter
I think this must be the explanation. Some species can just endure more change.
The really interesting question then is why are they so? How did they evolve to have that attribute? Maybe they are oldest? Maybe they are sort of first colonizers, like lichen and moss.
The video maker also@@marcseldin130 was surprised that biodiversity never increased. That would be at least statistically impossible. For that evolution would have to create a new species in the jar :p.
Hello Mr. Jars! Just wanted to say, 4 years ago I was inspired by your videos to make my own ecosphere. I still have it and the snails have been surviving the entire time! All of the snails are named Randy. So I just want to so thank you because you’re the reason for my jar full of Randies that I love dearly!
But do you love it dearly enough to be randy
eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy eat randy
same he inspired me too i just made one today
This so nice!!
I love that they're all named Randy. You'll never forget their names!
I remember I used to have an old aquarium that I didn’t use. So I filled it with a bunch of plants and other thingies and bugs from my local water source. The result was awesome! So many incredible and interesting species. For example a large water beetle that ate the large leech I also put in it. It was so awesome too look at and I could do so for hours at a time. (Ik ben trouwens ook Nederlands)
Its like a some window in another universe ! ⚗️💚
您好。请问，您最近有没有梦过不可相信的东西？如果你有的话请开窗，请开窗，请开窗，请开窗，九月五号来了 开窗 开窗 开窗 开窗
Dutch pog
@@jumpvelocity3953what will happen if I open the window?
Ostracods can handle really low oxygen levels. I read that because their natural habitats include vernal pools, their life cycle is to breed rapidly in just that sort of small volume of still water.
If I recall, some people don’t like them because they think that with enough food supply they will keep breeding until the oxygen levels are so low other animals can’t live there. I don’t know if it’s true. But I think it’s true that if a jar winds up with just ostracods then it stabilized to a pretty low oxygen level.
I have a lot of ecosystems myself. Some succeed, some die. I see the boom and bust cycle a lot. The ones that are successful right now, I think, will probably live forever.
Mine always fail :c what am I doing wrong? Do I need to add carbon?
@@mrybird4044 poor salt into them and then piss in the jar.
LIFE IN JARS UPLOADED BABE ILL BE BUSY FOR A LIL
😐
Hyyyypeeed
aint no love in ur life lil bro
I don’t know how you’d get it on a plane but I’d love it if you got an eco system from a different part of the world! I think that would be quite interesting!
Yeah that's quite a challenge
And then put on a convention to show them all off.
Yes thats a good idea !!
I'd love to see this as well... or maybe from a more southern part of Europe like Spain or Italy.
@@LifeinJars train
Interesting how similar my closed ecosystem is to yours, though mine was taken from Lac Ste. Claire in Ontario. Thanks for posting yours; maybe one day i'll get good enough equipment to properly show mine.
It's less so about equipment, but more about patience! Good luck
You only need your Smartphone! You can cut the Video with inshot😁
Smart phone cameras are amazing these days. Just play around with some lights to cut the glare. We'd all be chuffed to see it I'm sure. Just comment back here and I know I'll check it out.
We’ll as the other comments were saying a simple smartphone will definitely get the job done you should do it!
My guess as to why those little guys are the only ones left is because they’re bottom/filter feeders. They can withstand a high amount of waste and things that the other species can’t. They probably really started thriving once the other species started dying off and they could feed on their biomaterial. But that’s just my guess!
I really love this channel, and I appreciate all you do to make these. Incredibly fascinating and spark some great thoughts and wonder.
Thank you very much
@@LifeinJarshey after you removed the dragonfly larva why didn’t you add the old diversity in the beginning?
Since this is air tight I guess this should work in outer space as well! Kind of cool when you think of it.
NASA experimented with these for that exact purpose
Yes and we need to bring them to another planet. Maybe we are the species wich send life to different planets ! ⚗️👽💚
Do not do- i did this and ended up frying my whole ecosystem…i had a massive tubeffects (??idk how to spell it but rhe wiggle worms) population outburst the day before and was forced to move them outside for other none related reasons. The sun magnified in the jar and cook it
No, unfortunately it would still lose temperature. Perhaps if you included a power source and heater.
@@pattondurio yes i think Power is not a problem in space 😁👌
5 species of plants is really impressive. Diversity is hard to maintain in such a small system as a slight fitness advantage is spread throughout the whole system. There's not a lot of different regions for different species to inhabit.
Happy to see you are still uploading after all these years! Ad maiora semper
Thanks for watching for all these years!
It’s just amazing how life can adapt to new conditions. Your other ecospheres are much more biodiverse because the fast growing plants are probably blocking the light and drawing the nutrients. This will result in a lower amount of algae and biofilm which many animals feed on. Ostracods are always the animals that also just survive everything in my ecospheres so they probably outcompeted just every other species.
But I love your ecosphere. It looks awesome with all the plants 😊
I don´t think it is a matter of nutrient availability, but rather the accumulation of +/- toxic waste molecules from rotting biomass. Lack of oxygen kills animals as well as plants. Ostracodes might survive some times with low concentrations as eggs. Nitrates/ammonia might be a cause and while the aforementioned things can´t easily be measured, what can easily be measured is the pH. It might have changed to a level that only ostracodes survive longterm?
I believe that the jar had lower biodiversity in the end because it was overloaded. The other jars are more biodiverse because they were given the opportunity to increase it’s biodiversity itself.
It's impossible to increase the biodiversity (number of living species) after the jar is sealed
@@Thematic2177 not really, it just takes a really long time
Your videos relax me so much I swear.
Great video. I think that the waterweed species were a bad edition to the ecosphere. The waterweed grows faster than the other plants, so it outcompeted the other plants except for the Vallisneria which is primarily a root feeding plant. Now it has taken over and filled up the water column. At night when the waterweed is consuming oxygen, I think it draws in so much oxygen that the larger animals died of oxygen deprivation. That’s my theory.
Ah yes. Another banger video from you. Great as always!
Thank you
I actually started one myself and it is going quite well
Nice, I hope you enjoy it
@@LifeinJars My one Ecosphere right now is an Land Ecosphere and I’m planning to make a water ecosphere.
Should I use water from a lake or water from a river or from my Grandma’s pond?
@@TOLIMCSchacht pond will probably have more little critters in the water
@@sawyere2496 Ok, thank you. Than I will try that
Truly another life in jars W. This ecoshpere has aged like wine,but just dont drink it though.
It's tempting though....
😅
I would love to see a 2.5 gallon ecosystem with big rocks instead of only dirt, could have some rock up right others could be angled. Add some texture. Love videos 👌
I admire the way you're able to pronounce the names of those plants and little creepy crawlers so easily, the words just roll off your tongue with such ease.
The guy sounds greek if I had to guess, adds a nice ring to the names
@@Eduardopy1 I'm gonna say dutch. As a another dutch guy, our accents are usually destinct when speaking English 😂
@@Eduardopy1 definetly dutch.
it says netherlands in his about section
@@Eduardopy1 HAHAHA AS A FELLOW DUTCHIE I CANT STAND OUR DUtch accent. I notice it in a split second. There a very few dutchies i know who can compltely camouflage their accent
Thank you for adding captions!!!! It really helped me enjoy your videos.
Great to hear!
this channel inspired me to start a pond water ecosphere over 2 years ago now ,and watching it thrive has been one of my greatest pleasures. thank you for making such great videos!
Always great to get a LIJ? update! I guess the conclusion from your small study on closed ecospheres is that it's easier to sustain a single animal species in balance with food sources compared to multiple, or multiple with predators. I wonder if these little guys do particularly well because they abundantly lay eggs, which survive massive deoxygenation events and food shortages better than other animals, who may perhaps require more living members to survive?
Yeah could be!
Hey! Thanks for checking in! Always glad to see you upload. Hope you are well.
I feel like i have waited so long to see this update lol i remember when you first made this i am so happy to see what its become! I was hoping the snails would make it though so kinda sad they didnt but the jar lives on
Whenever I get in the mood for closed ecosystems, you upload something. I still vividly remember when you started this project. Keep it up!
I stuck this channel in my back pocket years ago, and I love dropping in to see how well (or not so well) these ecosystems are doing. love the channel
I had a 4 ft tank of shrimp before and at various points of time I had to remove large amounts of ostracoda too - they are really resilient
Ayy, another Life In Jars video! That’s my next 12 minutes and 23 seconds sorted.
This is amazing! I've started working on some jars as well and I'm surprised how hardy they are! Thank you for introducing me to another awesome hobby man!
Yes its so much fun and if it works also so easy. Just wait and watch 😁
This was very interesting to see still active after so long. I did love the boogie worms, but they must have a specific need that somebody ate. I love how Nature finds a balance, and an interdependent chain of life settles into making it work. Thanks for sharing…🖤🇨🇦
I started to watching your videos recently and you should be so proud of your content, you inspire me so much and i hope that this channel grows even more!
Just stumbled upon your channel tonight while watching other animal related vids and am absolutely obsessed with these microbiomes youve made, super fascinating!
I’m really glad you’re still making videos after all this time; I know your not likely to do a comprehensive update on all the spheres, but I do hope to see one on the rooftop bucket, and maybe your oldest ecosphere, though I’m not sure which that would be. My own is about five years old and is mostly algae now with very occasional seed shrimp sightings. I’m curious where yours are going at this point.
Your findings make complete sense, disturbance is what maintains bio-diversity. Without it bio-diversity eventually dwindles and only the strongest remain. Very cool videos, thoroughly enjoyed watching 👍
You are so WRONG everything you typed is complete BS! (sorry about the wording, but its true) You obviously have never read anything explaining how it actually works, so seriously PLEASE do NOT spread the misinformation you think to be true: "only the strongest survive"! is WRONG! Firstly correctly if has to say "the FITTEST" survive. A species does NOT have to be strong to be fit in the evolutionary sense! "Fit" means that over many generations, a species has more offspring than the competition, which can fall victim to the accumulation of events from famine, to natural disasters, predation and illnesses etc.
Secondly "disturbance is what maintains bio-diversity" is also COMPLETELY WRONG and BS! Just THINK: the most species diverse ecosystems are NOT DISTURBED e.g. tropic rain forests, regularly disturbed ecosystem are the LEAST DIVERSE! WHY would you believe otherwise, who propagates such nonsense? What you seem to misinterprete here is that, yes, on the alpha-diversity scale, with regards to ONLY a short time period in small localized area, more species can occure after a disturbance. BUT ONLY if there is undisturbed habitat around. ONLY THEN pioneer and climax species occur at the same place at a seemingly higher diversity. BUT many specialized species will have LOST their habitat and will die out if the disturbance occurs regularly.
@@chevelleSS427 Why not keep quiet if you have nothing to say? Completely useless, with no ounce of information whatsoever. People like you are the reason why the climate and and nature gets destroyed at ever faster rates regardless of decades of warnings and hundreds of years of modern science! You must the pride of the human race...
@@gshaindrich Apologies for using the incorrect terminology, I wasn't exactly expecting my rather throw away comment to be analysed to such a degree. I do agree however I should have used the term fit not strong and for that I do apologize. Other than that I have to inform you that rainforests do suffer from disturbance; tree falls, storms, floods and landslides. You'll find disturbance is everywhere in both diverse and non diverse environments, you just have to look closely. Whilst you'd certainly be correct in calling me out on saying disturbance is what drives biodiversity, I think you'll find that it does indeed play a large role in maintaining it within productive environments. I understand that my comment may have been taken the wrong way and for that I do apologize, I wasn't trying to insinuate that an increase in disturbance frequency or severity (to a degree above what is deemed the norm) will in turn increase diversity for that is obviously not true. But in many environments without disturbance of some form, dominance by competitive taxon is eventually reached causing a decrease in diversity. Potentially more so in plant communities I'll admit.
I've attached a few papers below to show I'm not simply making this up, I wouldn't say something if I wasn't sure of it's validity. That said I'm open to being shown otherwise.
Note the third paper I reference points towards the temporality and severity of disturbances and the environments they occur in being strongly linked to their effect on diversity. As with many things in nature no one answer fits all, so I appreciate that your comment is also correct in its own right when applied to certain situations.
Dominik Thom, Rupert Seidl
Natural disturbance impacts on ecosystem services and biodiversity in temperate and boreal forests
Biological Reviews 91 (3), 760-781, 2016
doi.org/10.1111/brv.12193
Bradley J Cardinale, Margaret A Palmer
Disturbance moderates biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships: experimental evidence from caddisflies in stream mesocosms
Ecology 83 (7), 1915-1927, 2002
doi.org/10.2307/3071774
Reciprocal relationships and potential feedbacks between biodiversity and disturbance
A. Randall Hughes, Jarrett E. Byrnes, David L. Kimbro, John J. Stachowicz
Ecology LettersVolume 10, Issue 9 p. 849-864, 2007
doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01075.x.
@@gshaindrich☝️🤓
@@aaronohara34 "Other than that I have to inform you that rainforests do suffer from disturbance; tree falls, storms, floods and landslides." - BUT how do these disturbances affect the biodiversity?
AND what is a "disturbance" and what is an essential natural process without which a local ecosystem would not function in the long run? e.g. "tree falls"
Same goes for floods. If the local biodiversity has adapted to the flood because it is occurring regularly and predictably, THEN it has STOPPED being a "disturbance", while the lack of flooding will be! Same goes for fires etc.!
I am familiar with the so called "intermediate disturbance hypotheses", but again what is a "disturbance"? and where do the additional species come from that make a disturbed area more diverse? What is necessary to maintain the dynamic equilibrium?
It is a question of scale, intensity and frequency... I just don´t think we can, but we certainly shouldn´t dogmatically state that disturbance is ~good. .
Happy to see the update! It's relaxing and informative to see and hear about these little ecosystem experiments. I really appreciate the scientific names being presented whenever possible as well.
I've been waiting for this update video for so long, thank you!!!!
Awesome video! I love seeing you post videos again :)
your "weird growth form" is actually a Charophyte alga! this is the group of algae plants evolved from, they grow in clear ponds and lakes
To be more precise, this is a Chara spec., most probably Chara vulgaris (in dutch: gewoon kransblad).
Love these long-in-the-making kinds of video updates!
I've got to try this now. Just got to wait for spring. Thanks for the video! Inspirational!
Your voice is so calming. An embodiment of zen. Always love a new upload 😍
I remember watching this video when you first published it. This is so interesting.
I love the implications of this one! It puts the world as an ecosystem is perspective considering the scale of this jar isn’t as much of a factor as could’ve been deduced at the beginning. Keep up the great work!
I used to watch your videos when I got back from school a few years ago. I'm so happy to see you're still going, I'll definitely be here as I used to be
Glad to see you posting again! We live in Australia and my son and I have watched all your videos! We have tried a few times to make our own life in a jar but we haven’t had much success. We absolutely love your content! Keep it up! You have fans all over the planet!
woooo new life in jars
It’s been 3 years since I last saw your videos and you sound so different now I’m pleasantly surprised 😄 also, happy that you’re still posting videos like this; it’s a great breather from our busy lives and a nice way to just watch and relax. 😊✨
I don't remember exactly when I joined this channel, but at the time I didn't think I would still be here at this point in time. I'm so happy I was wrong, and to see an update on this ecosphere
Yay anothe life in jars vid !
You probably know this, but I think of the island biogeography theory in these videos, a small island or jar, will have a smaller biodiversity. In this case, there is zero species coming to the jar, but the area (volume in this case) still applies? Im just a environmental engineer, not a biologist.
Fantastic Update! Love your videos!
This is the one channel i do not mind waiting years for an upload. Much love.
Nice video!!
Thank you!
Because of you I have a Jar on my window since about a year. I let it open and I use it to water my plants, but I make sure it never gets empty, and I only fill it with bottled drinking water. No visible moving life yet but it recently became green. I was so exited!
I have a jar I started almost 2 years ago. At first it didnt have any plants in it, but now it has 2 kinds of grass and the snails keep breeding. I love watching it and I started it because I watched your channel.
Hey, I hope you're doing well! Its been awhile since I commented. Ive had a lot going on, some good, some bad. I want to thank you again for your content, and the contented enjoyment of seeing the world in new ways, wonder at small things we dont even notice day to day.
So what happens to fly/mosquito larva in the jar? Do they turn into their flying counterpart briefly in the top of the jar? Or do they usually die before leaving the larva state?
I can’t speak for all, but I had a mosquito reach it’s adult stage and then it died after some time, just buzzing above the surface of the water
"almost 3cm long, in inches that's a different number" ❤
Yes ❤
Great video! I have a lot of interest in jar ecosystems and have tried my own over the years. Your channel is awesome! Keep up the good work sir.
Commenting to give traction! I'm happy to see an update on this jar
first
Second
THird
💀
Ive commited multiple felonies
@@liquidportal9082slay
i wonder how long it would take for these species and others in your jars to begin to diverge from their home variants (rapid evolution, adaption etc.)
Love u so much thx for coming back and still releasing such quality content ❤️💯💪
still loving your videos bub, they are seriously relaxing and personally perfect ♥️💪🏽🔥
I'd love to try this but I'm very intimidated by the fact that I have very little knowledge of the animals and plants I would be dealing with. Do you have any recommendations? Also what do you do with closed ecosystems when you're finished studying them?
Dealing with only in the sense of observation since there's no interaction between inside and outside
And if they completely die, you dispose of them but usually they're just sat around
Came from nature, goes back in it right
Okayyyyy man im early
Yeah!
I love it! The one I made years ago after finding your channel still has life too!
you should totally try keeping cockroaches! they sound gross but they are sooooo cute and i think it would be a really cool series to whatch of you keeping htem and growing their colony (there are liek cool emerald ones or other cool species you buy) and maybe in hte future you could even get like a massiiive old wine flask (like the ones used for making wine) and make them liek a massive bioactive enclosure
No.
@@mrpickles-hb6zx theyre cute dont hate on them
I’ve been making seacospheres, only had one that lasted 5 months, had to spin it sometimes to prevent the salt water from stratification, but if at all possible you should try it again! Get some seaweed that’s in a sort of tumbleweed and place it in a bucket, tons of little guys come out!
Fun fact: backswimmers are very closely related to the MUCH larger giant water beetles, or toe-biters. If you look at the tiny ones you can see the family resemblance is uncanny. They also bite with the same piercing/sucking mouthparts, and it hurts, although not nearly as bad.
Another great video, thanks for sharing buddy
Second?
Fourth, close!
@@LifeinJars darn
Second 😂
Correct
I actually took my 30 gallon aquarium and dug up and entire underwater lake substrate full of carpet moss and plants, well see how she looks after abit, im hoping to add some shrimp soon
Definitely wait to see if there are dragon fly nymphs before adding shrimp. They are voracious and will eat all the babies and juveniles 😢 had a strong colony of cherry shrimp, and didn't quarantine my plants... one got in and I had no idea why my shrimp were disappearing until it was too late!
@@missssmarie1763 well so far is full of everthing, ill let it go till it finds a Balence then ill add some shrimp.
Thank you Mr jar for introducing me to the ecosphere hobby
I remember finding your channel about two years ago (in Februar of 2021) and feeling inspired to try this out myself. I still have three jars going, two 3 litre ones and a small one in what was a bottle of tomato sauce (around 0.5 l). The plantlife in all of them is sparse, but given that the pond I collected it from only have three plant species in it to begin with, that's to be expected. Two of the two bigger jars still sprout animal life, thou. Ostracods, Daphnia, Copepods in varying numbers and armys of snails of unknown species (I never id them). There are also signs of tubifex burrowing in the substrate, but I didn't see one in over a year. The small jar has gone through three cycles as of now and I needed to put duckweed in again to keep it going. But now it seems pretty stable and full of ostracods. Especially the small one is full of some sort of bacteria or protozoa as well, as the water gets cloudy twice a day and clearing up thorugh midday and night. But I lack a microscpe to check what it actually is.
Thank you for uploading. I love your videos
I'm so glad that you're back
This reminds me of a study i read about the rewilding of former mines and the sediment that comes from them. When intentionally rewilded with local plant and animal species to have a high biodiversity, the biodiversity will be initially higher but then starts to decrease over time. Contrasting this with the control sample where the mine and sediment was just left behind, the recovery is slower but the eventual biodiversity is higher than the intentionally rewilded one, and it also doesn’t start shrinking.
Oh yeeaaaaah new update
Been having a tough day, but your videos always legitimately make me smile! Hoping to start my own ecosystems soon!
ey, that's a dutchie. geinige vids man, blijf zo doorgaan!
nice start of my day with a joint a coffee and some relaxing pond video
Glad to get an update and new video :)
"But what about the pond animals?"
*Shoves a duck in there.*
hey great video as always life in jars! i have tried making the saltwater version of these and they all failed idk if it’s because i didn’t have green plants cuz i only got sargassum where I live but it was still fun
my ecosphere started with only 1 ostracot and majority tubifex as the primary organism but a month in and ostracot population has increased amazingly
3:10 that water beetle looks very polite and well mannered
Fantastic 👌👍 so therapeutic to watch
Thank you 🙏
Just fascinating - thank you, man!
I cant believe theres a kurakha dahdaza and mhusiti turoro inside.
Great video btw 😂
Really enjoyed the video! Here are some thoughts on why ostracods might be the last ones standing in closed ecosystems:
Ostracods are known for their adaptability. They can survive in a variety of environments, from freshwater to marine, and even extreme ones like the deep sea or temporary ponds. This could help them endure as ecosystem conditions change.
Ostracods have a varied diet. They can consume a range of food sources, including detritus, algae, and small invertebrates. This dietary flexibility could be an advantage when food resources become scarce.
Many ostracods can reproduce asexually, a process known as parthenogenesis. This means a single individual can populate an entire ecosystem, which could be particularly useful in a closed ecosystem where mates may be scarce.
Some ostracods produce eggs that can resist drying out and can stay dormant for a long time until conditions are favorable again. This could help them survive harsh conditions that other species can't.
Ostracods are typically very small, which may allow them to use resources and niches that larger organisms can't.
These are just theories, and the exact reasons could vary depending on each ecosystem's specific conditions. While ostracods may dominate in numbers, they may not necessarily dominate in terms of biomass or ecological impact. Hope this contributes to the discussion!