mommy22 wrote:Today I spent pulling out Garlic Mustard in my little area of the world with a group of naturalists (and a photographer).
It was quite insightful, as I guess I'd never made the connection with Invasive species and the food chain. And that made me think of bees and how many are AWOL, and other oddities in the weather, etc...
The naturalist talked about how if the invasive species in any area is allowed to overtake the native species, insects don't have the nectar from flowers that aer meant to grow in that area. If the insects aren't there, the birds have to find another place to eat, as well as amphibians, etc... and on and on up the food chain.
Anyway, now is the time to pull up the Garlic Mustard here, until it blossoms, and seeds go everywhere (thus inadvertantly spreading the seeds and doing a disservice).
I encourage you to find out what's an invasive species in your corner of the world, and the best time to destroy it, and DO IT!!
Sorry if this is already common knowledge...I just didn't realize til today how important this is to work against.
Oh...one more thing...A SUCCESS! The naturalist took us to an area that a group had pulled out Garlic Mustard last year, and he was really surprised to see that it all but disappeared, and that native wildflowers were starting to thrive in that area. So, if you are out there pulling, know you are doing something awesome for the plants next year and years to come!
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Gideon wrote:Tanada - yes. Very good.
I believe that there are some examples of successful control - not elimination. There's some plant in FL that has been restrained. Rabbits in Oz.
But for the most part you are right.
The idea of removing "invasive species" so that we can bring back the past may be more vainglorious than realistic.
I was in my backyard once and I noted to my neighbor that I liked the english ivy that blanketed the ground.
It's an invasive species, she replied.
Maybe, but the oaks didn't seem to mind the ground cover and I didn't either.
Does Zebra muscle taste good?
On the other hand, if it's that good at removing toxins from the water, then it's probabably a mistake to eat it.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Chaparral wrote:I'd expect the issue of invasive species to fall off the radar once the oil shocks really start to bite. In So Cal, I see all these people with the Native Plant Society taking the boat to Catalina Is to hack out non-native fennel and wild mustard in an attempt to return an entire landscape to its "natural" or "pristine" state. The amount of thought and energy some put into this is amazing, and to me, foolish: like pissing into a force 10 gale.
The downside with non-natives in a post PO env't where Permaculture and such gains importance is that many species like Eucalyptus for example seem almost worse than useless: they don't support much of a food web, not a whole lot grows under their canopies, they're a fire hazard extrordinaire and the wood required months of seasoning before it's useful for building materials. Similar situations occur with Arundo donax invading riparian corridors or Eurasian crucifers covering hillsides in Calif. Certain invasives might render the landscape even less productive than topsoil degradation or years of industrial ag.
I'd argue that ultimately, everything is just going to have to coevolve and niches will develop slowly as predators and parasites integrate the newcomers into the extant ecosystems. Geez! Imagine peak oil and global warming combined with red-imported fire ants
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
dohboi wrote:Also, how much do we know about the sea bed in ESAS. Is it utterly lifeless? If not, might there be some burrowing creatures there which may become more active as things warm? And even if it is now (which I doubt), might not new creatures be migrating into these newly warmed waters (I'm quite sure they are), some of which may be active burrowers? Couldn't these provide pathways for warm water to get directly down to deeper layers of sediment without having to depend on slow radiative transfer?...Just some thoughts that waft about in my feverish brain...
Among the participants on board for this leg of the trip was Kim Howland, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who joined C3 to continue a DNA sampling study that has been part of the expedition's science mission since its voyage began in June.
Unlike the easy-to-spot passengers from the Crystal Serenity, the visitors that Dr. Howland is most concerned about are hidden invaders that could soon be arriving in these waters as climate change opens the doors to increased maritime traffic.
Dr. Howland's focus is on the invasive species that can travel across oceans in the ballast water of commercial ships and that have a devastating impact when they arrive in places where they don't belong.
"The Arctic hasn't had to face this problem until now," said Dr. Howland, who is part of DFO's Arctic Research Division, based in Winnipeg. "But with ongoing warming and declines in sea ice making these waters more navigable – and more hospitable – it's a real concern."
The DNA study Dr. Howland and her colleagues is conducting is aimed at giving scientists and officials a fair warning about precisely what is coming to Canada's northern seas. Rather than look for individual specimens of an invading species which may or may not be present, the study scoops up free-floating DNA from the water, searching for genetic traces of animals that are not native to the region. Because the C3 ship is making one continuous trip through the Arctic from east to west, it can provide a snapshot of where things stand in each region and how those regions compare.
For those who live along the Great Lakes, where zebra mussels have been a scourge since they arrived in the 1980s, the problem of invasive species is not new. Similarly, Atlantic Canada has been coping with its share of interlopers. They include the European green crab, a tenacious predator that out-competes native species and can have a destabilizing effect on intertidal ecosystems – all to the detriment to local fisheries. Another threat is the common periwinkle, a type of sea snail that also originated in Europe, and which the strains the marine food chain by eating all the algae in sight, as well as transmitting a parasite that affects fish.
Historically, these and other creatures were not deemed a threat to Arctic waters, as it was presumed the harsh conditions there would prohibit their growth. But Dr. Howland has just co-authored a modelling study which suggests that this is no longer the case for some potential invaders, and it will become less so as time goes on.
"The motivation was to try to understand the threat of the arrival of new species in a region where we don't have too much information," said Jesica Goldsmit, a postdoctoral researcher with DFO and lead author of the study, which was accepted for publication last week in the journal Biological Invasions.
In the study, the researchers looked at how eight invasive species might fare in the Arctic 50 years from now based on climate forecasts. The result: "We're predicting that all the species we modelled would survive," Dr. Howland said. While the degrees to which the species are likely to migrate northward vary, all of them would find a suitable habitat somewhere in the Arctic by the end of the 50-year run, the model shows. And all of them pose a threat to the ecosystem and traditional ways of life.
One of the locations at highest risk is the relatively warmer Hudson Bay, which is considered an Arctic ecosystem even though it dips well below the Arctic Circle. Another is the Beaufort Sea, above the coast of Alaska and Western Canada, which is open to shipping coming up through the Bering Strait.
Less clear is what will happen among the maze of channels and islands that makes up the central portion of Canada's High Arctic – also known as the Kitikmeot region – where the marine biology is far less explored. This is part of what has motivated Dr. Howland and other researchers who are participating in the C3, as well as others who are conducting studies in the area. And it's clear there is little time left to gather the baseline data before region is further transformed by warming temperatures and increased shipping traffic.
Sea and land alike are affected by climate change. Jeff Saarela, a botanist and director of the Canadian Museum of Nature's Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration, was also on the C3 last week, armed with a permit to collect plants as part of the expedition. Taking advantage of the ship's frequent stops in places that few scientists have ever been able to access, he spent much of the voyage with his knees in the dirt, trowel in hand, extracting specimens.
"We know the Arctic is the fastest-warming part of the planet, and we know that species are responding," Dr. Saarela said. "To document when something has moved, you have to know what was there before."
Along the voyage there were hints of the transformation to come. After leaving Cambridge Bay, expedition leaders nosed their ship west and south to the now uninhabited hamlet of Bathurst Inlet.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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