Ecosystem of the Siberian Taiga❄️ A taiga is a snowy coniferous forest found near tundras of Asia and North America. This illustration is from my book The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth . . . #rachelignotofsky #ecosystems #biodiversity #ecology #taiga #snowforest https://www.instagram.com/rachelignotofsky/p/CYcnxUmP_kk/?utm_medium=tumblr
Just the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem in a fish bowl to calm your nerves . ❤️ Illustration from my book The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth art print for sale in my shop! Link in bio ❤️ . . . . #ecosystems #planetearth #rachelignotofsky #ecology #biodiversity
#bigcats are powerful, dangerous, beautiful predators. They’re perfectly adapted for the #ecosystems they live in, and have inspired #myths and #legends for millennia. Even so, they’re still sometimes just #cats who do quintessential things - as perfectly demonstrated by this #jaguar taking a bath up on a nice high perch at the Houston Zoo. #catsofinstagram #bigcat #houstonzoo #toebeans #cutecats #zooanimals #catsbeingcats #pantheraonca (at Houston Zoo) https://www.instagram.com/p/Btq9gKCB2-O/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=md5b988mb0q5
#bigcats are powerful, dangerous, beautiful predators. They’re perfectly adapted for the #ecosystems they live in, and have inspired #myths and #legends for millennia. Even so, they’re still sometimes just #cats who do quintessential things - as perfectly demonstrated by this #jaguar taking a bath up on a nice high perch at the Houston Zoo. #catsofinstagram #bigcat #houstonzoo #toebeans #cutecats #zooanimals #catsbeingcats #pantheraonca (at Houston Zoo) https://www.instagram.com/p/Btq9gKCB2-O/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=y37sgbzntx18
Prairies are some of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, with the tallgrass prairie being the most endangered. Only 1-4% of tallgrass prairie still exists.
Prairies are critically important, not only for the unique biodiversity they possess, but for their effect on climate.
The ability to store carbon is a valuable ecological service in today’s changing climate. Carbon, which is emitted both naturally and by human activities such as burning coal to create electricity, is a greenhouse gas that is increasing in the Earth’s atmosphere. Reports from the International Panel on Climate Change, a group of more than 2,000 climate scientists from around the world, agree that increased greenhouse gases are causing climate change, which is leading to sea level rise, higher temperatures, and altered rain patterns. Most of the prairie’s carbon sequestration happens below ground, where prairie roots can dig into the soil to depths up to 15 feet and more. Prairies can store much more carbon below ground than a forest can store above ground. In fact, the prairie was once the largest carbon sink in the world-much bigger than the Amazon rainforest-and its destruction has had devastating effects.
I just have to add–that extensive root system? It’s not just how the plant eats, and how it keeps itself from getting pulled out of the ground during storms, or dying when its aboveground portion is eaten… it’s how it talks to its friends and family, how it shares food with its friends and family, and more than likely, how it thinks.That’s a whole plant brain we’ve domesticated away, leaving a helpless organism that has trouble figuring out when it’s under attack by pests, what to do about it, has very little in the way of chemical defense so it can do something about it, and can’t even warn its neighbors. Even apart from the ecological concerns, what we’ve done is honestly pretty cruel.
Whether or not you think this should qualify as a form of “intelligence” as we know it (which in itself as a pretty nebulous and poorly defined thing), plants exhibit complicated interactive behaviors that help them grow and thrive, and the way we harvest a lot of them for our produce just doesn’t even give them a chance to reach their maturity and begin trading nutrients the way they’re supposed to.
It turns out that Border Collies are an ideal breed for this specific type of job. Bounding through miles of forest terrain requires not only speed, intelligence, and endurance, but also a willingness to stay focused and not get distracted by wildlife. Border Collies were bred to herd sheep, so they’re not as likely to run after or hurt other animals in the forest.
This system is also more efficient than having people spread the seeds manually. These speedy canines can race through a forest and cover up to 18 miles a day. Humans, on the other hand, can only cover a few miles each day. These pups can scatter over 20 pounds of seeds, depending on the terrain. While robots or drones might be able to disperse seeds too, dogs aren’t as pricey to handle. Most importantly, they leave a lighter carbon footprint.
Francisca and Constanza put special backpacks on the dogs, fill them with native seeds and then it’s off to the races. Once the dogs have emptied out their bags, Francisca and Constanza give them plenty of treats, refill their bags, and release them again to dash around the destroyed forest, sprinkling more seeds in their wake. The end goal of all this, of course, is to restore the damaged ecosystem and have the wildlife return to the forests.
“The razing of an old-growth forest is not just the destruction of magnificent individual trees — it’s the collapse of an ancient republic whose interspecies covenant of reciprocation and compromise is essential for the survival of Earth as we’ve known it.”
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| Ferris Jabr, The Social Life of Forests
Jabr also cites Richard Powers, from The Overstory:
There are no individuals. There aren’t even separate species. Everything in the forest is the forest.
