Seagrass and Neptune Balls

 

Seagrass and Neptune Balls by Yolanda Ridge

Here’s something you probably know (or could figure out): seagrass is grass that grows in the sea, usually close to shore in clusters called meadows.

Here’s something you probably didn’t know: seagrass is helping to fight plastic pollution.

How?

By removing microplastics from the ocean.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: When blades of seagrass die, they sink to the ocean floor and hang out between long blades of grass that are still growing strong.

Step 2: Ocean water washes through these seagrass meadows as the tide moves in and out.

Step 3: Tiny bits of plastic in the water get trapped among the living blades of grass and tumble about with the dead ones.

Step 4: Over time, they form something called Neptune balls.

Step 5: As Neptune balls grow in size, they eventually escape the seagrass meadow—with the help of waves—and roll toward shore.

Scientists estimate Neptune balls from a specific species of seagrass collect nearly 900 million plastic items in the Mediterranean Sea alone—every single year. That’s good news for ocean ecosystems since microplastics are a danger to everything from sea creatures to seagrass itself.

And that’s not all! Seagrass also:

• improves water quality by filtering out more than just plastic,

• fights climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, and

• provides a home for hundreds of different fish species.

So next time you’re swimming at the beach and feel something tickle your toes, look down and see if you’re swimming over a seagrass meadow. Leave it be and then give those Neptune balls a hand by picking up whatever plastic you see—on land or at sea—and disposing of it properly.

Yolanda Ridge is a middle grade author and science writer from Rossland, BC. Her most recent nonfiction book for young adult readers, CRISPR: A Powerful Way to Change DNA (Annick, 2020) is available wherever you buy books. Visit http://www.yolandaridge.com to find out more.

Image Credits

1. Seagrass Photograph: Milorad Mikota/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

2. Neptune ball at Sea Photograph: Oplats/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

3. Neptune Balls on Shore Photograph: Marta Veny/UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA/AFP/Getty Images

Source Information

1. Sànchez-Vidal, A.; Canals, M.; de Haan, W.P.; Romero, J.; Veny, M. “Seagrasses provide a novel ecosystem service by trapping marine plastics”. Scientific Reports, January, 2021.

Doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-79370-

2. https://phys.org/news/2021-01-seagrass-meadows-marine-plastic-sea.html

3. https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/menu_eines/noticies/2021/01/003.html

I Found a Baby Bird!

 by Paula Johanson

Image shared with permission from @GeorgiaAudubon on Twitter.

Continuing our Bird Theme on Sci/Why for another week, here's another post for fans of ornithology, the study of birds. Birdwatching is one of the most popular pastimes in North America, for people of any age and particularly families. For this study, amateurs don't need much more than a notebook and maybe a pair of binoculars. There are SO MANY resources to find at public libraries and online!

As the Audubon Society in Georgia notes, in North America we are entering the season of baby birds. Here are some handy tips so you'll know what to do if you find a baby bird. (Click on the image to see a larger and more readable version.)

 

In case the image isn't clear for you, the tips are very simple.

-If the bird looks injured, call your local wildlife rehabilitation centre.

-If the bird has feathers, hopping on the ground is normal. If it's safe from dogs or cats or people, leave it alone. 

-If the bird is too young to have feathers, put it back in the nest. (Dry, clean hands don't have a lot of scent, and the parents don't care about your scent.)

And remember: even if you can't help that one bird, supporting bird and wildlife habitat in your area will do plenty to help many birds.

Birds Make Us Happy

 Birds Make Us Happy… by Nina Munteanu

photo by Nina Munteanu

 

When I go out on my daily walk in the nearby meadow, woodland and marsh, I find myself listening to the birds. Their songs and calls weave a symphonic tapestry that stitches me into the very fabric of the place. Through them I find my way “home.” The iconic trill of the red-winged blackbird in the wetland calls me back to my masters studies at university when I did my field work in the marshes and fields near Lennoxville, Quebec. At my back door, the spring serenade of the robin —cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up—calls me back to the comfort of childhood. There’s the playful chickadee-deh-deh-deh giggle of the chickadee, the sweet whistles of the yellow warbler. And then there is the echoing fluting notes of the hermit thrush; that outpouring of heaven’s light from such a tiny creature sends my own heart soaring and fills me with joy. 

A robin fledgling (All bird photos by Merridy Cox)

 

All these make me joyful. All are heaven’s gift.

And I think of Robert Browning’s enduring quote: God’s in His heaven; all’s right with the world.

A recent study has correlated our happiness levels to bird diversity: the higher the number of birds, the greater our joy. This is no surprise to me.

 

by Nina Munteanu

The study by scientists at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research was published recently in Ecological Economics, reports Carly Nairn of Eco Watch. “The scientists concluded that conservation is just as important for human well-being as financial security,” writes Nairn. The study surveyed more than 26,000 adults from twenty-six European countries. From the study, the authors calculated that being around fourteen additional bird species provided as much satisfaction as earning an additional $150 a month. “A high biological diversity in our immediate vicinity is as important for life satisfaction as our income,” reports Senckenberg Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum. “Biological diversity evokes happiness: more bird species in their vicinity increase life satisfaction of Europeans as much as higher income.”

 

A bluejay

According to these and other researchers, birds are the best indicators of biological diversity and more bird species live in natural ecosystems such as green spaces, forested areas and bodies of water. Birds “are among the most visible elements of the animate nature – particularly in urban areas,” reports Senckenberg. “Their song can often be heard even if the bird itself is not visible, and most birds are popular and people like to watch them.”

"The happiest Europeans are those who can experience numerous different bird species in their daily life, or who live in near-natural surroundings that are home to many species," argued lead author Joel Methorst, a doctoral researcher at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center, the iDiv and the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

 

A mourning dove

The research findings also clearly demonstrate that bird diversity is predicated on a healthy natural ecosystem; these two are bound to each other.

Plowing of fields, deforestation, wetland draining, climate change and other land use clearing and treatments have caused great habitat loss. In addition, neonicotinoid pesticides make it harder for birds to put on weight needed for migration, delaying their travel. Our common birds make up a large part of the diversity of birds we encounter. For me just north of Toronto, this means the robin, the cardinal, sparrow, wren, blackbird, starling, junco, blue jay, chickadee, mourning dove, warbler, goldfinch, vireo, crow, osprey, hawk, and so on. 

 

A grackle

These same common bird species are vital to our ecosystems. They control pests, pollinate flowers, spread seeds and help regenerate forests. When these birds disappear, their former habitats lose their functionality. “Declines in your common sparrow or other little brown bird may not receive the same attention as historic losses of bald eagles or sandhill cranes, but they are going to have much more of an impact,” said Hillary Young, a conservation biologist at the University of California. Kevin Gaston, a conservation biologist at the University of Exeter, lamented that: “This is the loss of nature.”

    A chickadee

My short story “Out of The Silence,” which appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of subTerrain Literary Magazine (Issue #85), tells the story of Katherine, a blind elder whose digital app failed to warn the world of the sudden global loss of birds with disastrous ecological consequences.

“The irony was that, once the birds vanished, the pests the fungus was originally targeted recovered with a vengeance. Some birds eat as many as 500 insects a day in the summer. Without insect-eating birds like bluebirds, wrens and chickadees to eat them, the pests exploded in numbers, causing ecosystems to collapse worldwide. 2041, which experienced an extremely warm summer, brought in swarms of grasshoppers to Asia and Europe, destroying whole harvests like a plague. I was reminded of Mao Tse Tung’s 1960 edict to kill all sparrows who were eating the seeds in the fields; instead, they caused a horrific plague of locusts that caused famine. With the disappearance of a single bird—the House Swift—agricultural pests in China quadrupled in 2041. Without the Evening Grosbeak, spruce budworm destroyed huge sections of the western forests of North America in the forties. Without the oystercatcher there to keep it in check, the Salt Marsh periwinkle destroyed a majority of the salt marshes of south-eastern USA by the late forties.

“Ironically, the pests did the most damage on the giant monocrops meant to benefit the most from the killer fungus. The ag-giants responded by dousing their wheat, maize, rice and cotton fields with even more pesticides—to which many pests had already become resistant. Instead of addressing the pests, they wiped out pollinating insects like bees and butterflies. With no pollinators, even GMO crops—like soybeans, corn, potatoes and sugar beets—failed and collapsed within a few years. China resorted to hand-pollinating their orchards. The rest of the world followed their desperate action. The price of chocolate skyrocketed when arthropods crashed the cacao agroforestry in Indonesia and the Ivory Coast. Food prices soared everywhere; soon the Foodland grocery store near where I lived grew empty. I quit drinking coffee; its price had risen to $60 a pound after the infestations of coffee plantations in Indonesia, India and Vietnam, followed by Brazil and Mexico in 2042. By the late 40s, the disappearance of insectivorous and pollinating birds meant no more apples, nuts, olives, or wine—among a host of staple foods.”

A nuthatch

In short, a healthy diverse bird population means a healthy habitat, a healthy ecosystem AND a healthy human mind. "Nature conservation therefore not only ensures our material basis of life, but it also constitutes an investment in the well-being of us all," says Methorst.

References:

Methorst, J. et al. (2020): The importance of species diversity for human well-being in Europe. Ecological Economics, doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106917

Munteanu, Nina. 2020. “Out of the Silence.” subTerrain Literary Magazine, Issue 85. Vancouver, BC

Nairn, Carly. 2021. Eco-Watch.

Senckenberg Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum. 2020. Online: https://www.senckenberg.de/en/pressemeldungen/biological-diversity-evokes-happiness-more-bird-species-in-their-vicinity-increase-life-satisfaction-of-europeans-as-much-as-higher-income/

You can learn more about Nina Munteanu and her book Water Is... on the website https://themeaningofwater.com/ There's more to see in the podcast "The Meaning of Writing and Water" at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN0j033hAXQ&feature=youtu.be

The World's Most Successful Bird

 

Female House Sparrow
Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Mostly we pay no attention to House Sparrows. Why should we? They’re all over the place, common as dirt; songbirds with not much of a song (just “cheep-cheep-cheep”); rather dull colours, not like cardinals or blue jays.

In truth, although the females are rather nondescript “LBBs” (little brown birds), from close up the males are quite striking.

Male House Sparrow
Photo: Simon Shapiro

 

Looks aside, they’re pretty interesting birds.

They have the distinction of being the most ubiquitous bird in the world. They’re not native to North America. They were introduced into New York from Britain, though they're not really native to Britain either. The first fossil record of house sparrows is 10,000 to 20,000 years ago in Israel. The introduction into New York is documented. Depending on what document, 100, or perhaps 16, birds were introduced in 1840, or perhaps 1851. There’s more agreement that the birds were introduced to help control insect pests. And it’s clear that within fifty years they had spread throughout North America – wherever people lived – were damaging crops and were widely considered to be a pest. And they’ve done that on every continent. They are literally to be found wherever people live.

They like to live very close to people. They take their name “house sparrow” quite seriously. They love to nest in crevices of buildings, like eaves or dryer vents. They will happily fly into large indoor areas, especially if there’s food to be had. As for food, they’re not picky. They eat seeds, nuts, fruit. They happily forage for not-fully-digested seeds in horse or cattle dung. And, particularly to feed their young, they also target insects. 

Beware of What you Wish for.

 In 1958 in China, Mao declared war on tree sparrows, a close relative of the house sparrow. The birds were thought to be eating a substantial portion of China’s crops. Sparrows were declared to be one of four national pests and people were encouraged to eliminate them. Hundreds of millions were killed. The insects that they would have eaten helped cause the crop failure that killed tens of millions of people.

House sparrows are very aggressive birds. At a feeder they will often chase away birds two or three times their size. They annoy birds and bird-lovers by appropriating nesting boxes which were set up for more “desirable” native species of songbird. They will destroy the eggs of, and even kill, other adult birds and their chicks.

They multiply quickly because they have two or three broods per year, and raise about five chicks with each brood. Some bird enthusiasts dislike house sparrows intensely and want to get rid of them because they’re an alien species. But a much bigger threat to native birds is that humans continually destroy their habitat. For my part, I’ll just continue being awe of how well House Sparrows have adapted to human habitat.