Ecology in the Methow

Ecology: The interaction of living organisms with one another and with matter and energy.

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Program by Dana Visalli/dana@methownet.com/www.methownaturalist.com

5 primary characteristics of terrestrial ecosystems:

1. Energy flows through daily2. Water flows through annually3. Resources cycle perpetually4. Soil is the basis of terrestrial life5. Stable ecosystems have stable populations

Ecology: The interaction of organisms with one another, and with matter and energy.

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Energy flows in from outside the ecosystem 3

The sun is 93 million miles away; 1 billionth if its NRG reaches earth4

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Nutrients: no more are being delivered 6

Where does nature store its waste? 7

8The real dirt on dirt: the foundation of terrestrial life

9Stable ecosystems have stable populations

Young ecosystems cannot retain energy/water/nutrients

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5 primary characteristics of terrestrial ecosystems:

1. Energy flows through daily2. Water flows through annually3. Resources cycle perpetually4. Soil is the basis of terrestrial life5. Stable populations

What are some ways ecosystems can retain energy?

Mature ecosystems observe all 5.

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12A food and energy pyramid

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Struggle for energy at the top of the NRG pyramid

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The fact that energy degrades and is limitedis counter-intuitive and offense to many

What are some ways ecosystems can retain water?

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How do ecosystems retain nutrients? 16

Decomposers 17

Ambrosia beetle, and beetle galleries 18

Limiting Factor: some aspect of the environmentthat limits primary production

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Each ecosystem has it’s own way of interacting with energy and matter—Methow shrub-steppe 2

Montane Forest—Pacific Silver Fir 21

Aquatic Ecosystem—Methow River

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Ecological Succession

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Succession in amid-elevationMethow Forest

25Douglas-fir crowding Ponderosa

Disturbance can reset Succession

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The Methow 17,000 years ago– and last year

Keystone Species 28

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Co-evolution 30

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Colonizers versus Symbiotic Community 32

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Symbiotic Organisms

Proximate Emergent properties: soil creation, carbon sequestration, oxygen in atmos-phere, soil retention, nitrogen in atmosphere, three-dimensional world (water is 3D by nature but life made the land 3D through the capacity of plants to grow hundreds of feet in the air), communication (from development of sight, sound, smell, touch—without sight flowers would not have developed, nor flight, most vertebrates would in fact be absent; without the capacity to interpret vibrations in the atmosphere there would be no bird song, speech, animal talk, thunder; touch may be the first and most basic sense, a sense of the world around the organism),natural selection and evolution, refinement of species, seeddispersal, climate moderation (carbon reduction, transpiration, temperate moderation, shading, moisture retention), the diversification of the web of life (which is complex; in the Methow only plants make appreciable biomass/food—about 1300 species—but there are probably 20,000 or more species of life in the Methow), population moderation—e.g. predator/prey relationships, herbivore/plant relationships, ecosystems tendency to grow more efficient, complex diverse, stable over time, organisms and ecosystems build on previous structures and accomplishments (nitrogen fixation in plants, insect pollination, fungal mycorrhizal, food digestion by bacteria in gut of animals).

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Some other properties of ecosystems that we aren’t covering…..

Ultimate Emergent Properties: 1. Life changed the atmosphere; both oxygen and nitrogen are pumped into the atmosphere by life. While N2 is a triple bond and hard to break, lightening does break it, at which point it combines with O to become NO. Without life all N would be removed from the atmosphere in a few million years. Interestingly, N2 is made available to the atmosphere by anaerobic bacteria—Archea. Oxygen would not have built up as it has even with photosynthesis without the sequestration of carbon, which had to wait for an abundance of land plants. 2. Photo-synthetic marine life is responsible for making the ozone layer possible, without which terrestrial life could not exits due to unfiltered ultra-violet radiation. 3. Life is responsible for the concentrated accumulations of metal ores on the planet that have made industrial society possible. 4. Life has removed carbon from the atmosphere by sequestering it as organic matter in geologic formations.Life has helped maintain a stable earth temperature over 4 billion years—even though the sun has increased its output by 25% in that time—by removing carbon from the atmosphere. The heat leaving the earth has to exactly match heat arriving, or the earth will warm or chill. 5. Terrestrial plant life alters the precipitation pattern in continental climates through transpiration; 50% of the rain that falls in the Amazon is produced by the Amazon rainforest. 6. Life is a geologic force that has helped to create tens of thousands of feet sediment in the form of coal, limestone, and iron ore. 7. Life increases the weathering of rock—and the release of rock-bound nutrients—by greatly increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the soil. This reacts with rainwater to form carbolyic acid, which is reactive with rock. 8. Life has greatly increased the transport of nutrients across the biosphere and uphill against gravity, thereby increasing the fertility of areas distant from the oceans. Pacific salmon are an example of this; until recently about 16 million salmon weighing an average of 10 pounds each (160 million pounds) migrated up the Columbia River every year to upland rivers, where they then spawned and died, releasing ocean nutrients in the mountains.More………..

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One Methow Ecosystem 36

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What to do when there’s nothing to do: erect Moai 40

Ideology overwhelms reality, biology trumps ecology 41

What happened on Easter Island……and why?

Proximate—Ultimate

Proximate1) overshoot of carrying capacity (population & consumption level)

2) environmental damage (which reduces carrying capacity)

Ultimate1) Genes: reproduction, personal status, security of the clan

2) The Mind serves the genes: belief versus ecological reality

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The Clovis Culture 13,600-13,000,

distinctive spear points

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Native Americans

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Methow Tribe—Winter Tipi 45

46Chief Joseph—Nez Perce Tribe—Wallowa Valley

Gobekli Tepe

Rapa Nui-Easter Island

Northern Iraq 47

Trajectory of human intelligence over time

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Understanding basicecology is anemergent propertyof the human mind

discarded cellphones

juvenile albatross fed plastic

Beliefs Unite the Clan 52

The nutrients in the soil- nitrogen, phosphorus & potassium- have to come from somewhere 53

Steps to a durable culture:

5 primary characteristics of terrestrial ecosystems:Energy flows through dailyWater flows through annuallyResources cycle perpetuallySoil is the basis of terrestrial lifeStable population

1. Live primarily on energy income2. Live on water income3. Create no waste4. Build soil—grow food locally5. 1 child per couple6. Refuse to participate in destruction of the biosphere

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Earth from the Moon– not very big

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The End

Every Ending is a New Beginning

This powerpoint was produced by Dana Visallidana@methownet.com

It is posted online atwww.methownaturalist.com