Let Me Tell Ya About The Birds and The Bees and The Flowers and The Trees

I know it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything. For this I apologize. No excuses given, just an apology. However, one thing that has been on my mind almost incessantly over the last couple of weeks is ecology. It's that branch of life and environmental sciences which looks at how biological life interacts with other members of the habitat. This can even include non-biological life such as soil, water, and climatic patterns.

Why has it been on my mind? In two words: it's fascinating! I have long been interested in these interactions and currently my work at Freshkills Park as well as my personal reading have reminded me that this is something I am deeply passionate about. The wonderful thing about ecology is that it exists in some form on every scale. Whether in an urban environment, the tropical forests, or coral reefs, ecology is present.

Some scientists focus on the whole ecosystem - interested in the big picture - while others are fascinated by narrower focal points, either between two species or a single group of organisms - such as plants - and how they interact with the rest of the system. My personal interest definitely focuses on plant ecology as I understand the singular importance that plants play in most ecosystems. You take out the plants endemic to a specific habitat and you have yourself a completely different ecosystem. Even switching which plant species is dominant within the ecosystem can alter the overall interactions inside the system.

Ecology is complex. Studying one system in one part of the globe does not mean you can make predictions about what will be going on in the same system located in a different region. Conditions are altered on a near continuous basis. What we know about an ecosystem now did not hold true for that system even 50 years ago. You add the fact that humans have had some sort of impact on every ecosystem and on most species and you are left with a royally complicated situation. But that is what is fascinating to me about it. Ecology is studying how biological life and its interactions with local physical and chemical elements are changing in real time.

You might say, "Look at what humans have done to the planet. It is ruined! Why would you want to actually know how bad the damage is?" You would be partially correct that humans have wreaked havoc with the ecosystems of this planet. Life has always dealt with havoc-induced changes though. Ecology can not only study ecosystems so we can be informed about how we must alter our activities, but ecology can also study how ecosystems are responding to our inputs. It's not always negative! Plus, we are learning from some of our mistakes and we have been giving back to nature. This dynamism is what makes life interesting.

There are no links on this post to back up my claims. This is just from my heart. You may not get it but so what? We all have our reasons why the environment means something to us. Ecology is my reason. What's your reason?

This Is Why I Love Being A Scientist

I thought I would share with you the post I have written for a soon-to-be-posted entry on the Freshkills Park blog. Part of my internship function is to conduct an independent research project. Because of my love of plants, biodiversity, and ecosystems I have decided to look into the problem of aggressive (invasive) plant species that have become established and taken over large sections of habitat within the park. Of course, Freshkills Park is not the only place to face such a challenge. We have been dealing with this for a long time, and it happens all over the world. We often don't realize that some of our native species are considered extremely invasive in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Anyway, here is the draft version of my blog entry. I will link the final version once it goes live. Enjoy!

Long Term Planning with Planting

One hundred years ago, forested swamps and tidal wetlands characterized the site that is now becoming Freshkills Park. In 1947, Robert Moses changed all that by designating the spot to be used as a landfill. The original plan of three years of garbage tipping followed by urban development turned into something far more complex, resulting in Fresh Kills gaining the infamous title of world’s largest landfill. All the disturbance associated with pit construction, tipping, and capping altered the landscape and its ecosystems in radical ways. Since the closure of the landfill and the gradual conversion of the site into a park, nature has tried a way to find a sense of normalcy.

The problem is what is normal now is not what was normal 100 years ago. The tidal wetlands and forested swamplands have been greatly fragmented and grass-covered mounds rise more than a hundred feet above the water. New ecosystems – the grassy mounds – have been introduced and the old ones, while still there, are a shadow of their former selves. To complicate matters, a few plants from exotic regions of the world have made Freshkills their home and have aggressively asserted their dominance in this altered landscape. The issue we face as the park moves forward is how to create a long-term plan that addresses the base factor of each ecosystem – plants.

I attempted to explore this issue by visiting the Greenbelt Native Plant Center which is adjacent to the northern end of Freshkills Park and seeks to provide the park with a great range of native plants. As a division of the Parks Department, the goal of the plant center is to be a repository of the biodiversity inherent in New York City’s plant landscape. The center’s director, Ed Toth, discussed the philosophy and process by which they operate. It turns out their goal is to not just collect and grow seeds from populations of native plants collected in the metropolitan region, but to preserve the range of genetic diversity that each species has. He used the example of a shrub that has 10,000 berries on it. Some collectors, he said, might be happy to just sit at that one shrub all day and collect the berries and call it good. However, that does not capture the range of genetic diversity contained within the entire species that may help it to survive existing – as well as new – stress factors that species faces during its struggle for survival. The mantra at the GNPC is to cast a wide net – collect a large amount of seeds from a large amount of individuals.

This science-based approach may help New York City’s native flora deal with encroaching competitors as well as the effects of climate change. Mr. Toth argues that while the success of dealing with aggressive neighbors, habitat fragmentation/degradation, and climate change will occur on a species-by-species case, if there is enough genetic diversity left within our native flora they will be able to adapt and flourish. He points to the fact that native plants have survived within both our worked and natural landscapes despite the heat-island effect which has occurred ever since the city became a conglomeration of pavement, highly-massed buildings, and infrastructure.

It is important to remember that landscapes within the city, like at Freshkills Park, are not the same now as they were 100 years ago. We have irreversibly altered most landscapes, and to think we can return them to those exact same conditions is to not understand the problem. We can improve plant ecosystems to a healthier, more diverse state, but many of what are termed “invasive” species are here to stay. According to Mr. Toth, if we want to change the landscape we must work the landscape slowly over time. Planting native species, monitoring their establishment, and educated maintenance regiments will help to inform and guide what should be an adaptive management plan for the range of species of flora in Freshkills Park. By observing and working with the plants we want to conserve on a regular basis, we should be able to get a sense of how the plants are reacting to certain environmental stressors. Such long term planning is likely to provide Freshkills with a healthy and genetically diverse ecosystems despite everything that nature and humans throw at it.