So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good - Genesis 1: 21
Unfortunately for these creatures, humankind would be born two days later.
Food chains are delicate things; a simple change to one part of the chain will change the circumstances dramatically for the rest of the chain. If the smallest of the animals disappears, another bigger animal won't have enough food, meaning that another animal won't have food, resulting in reduced populations. As this domino effect affects all the animals in a region, it is a rather big blow to an area's biodiversity; the variety of animals in the region.
In addition, pretty much every spot on Earth has somehow been impacted by humans over the last century. Humans have managed to really make their mark on the Earth; we've built towns, destroyed habitats, and added abnormal amounts of gases to the air, among a long list of other things. Unfortunately, in accordance with the previously mentioned domino effect, this also means that the mark of humans to the Earth has managed to affect food chains all over the world. But in a good way or a bad way?
On that note, behold one of the most game-changing factors in the recent history of the Great Lakes:
EXHIBIT A
These little objects are zebra mussels. They were discovered in Lake St. Clair in 1986, but caused one of the greatest uproars that the Great Lakes has ever known. You would think that this 3-centimeter organism wouldn't be able to cause too much change to an ecosystem...but they happen to have a long list of crimes attributed to them.
EXHIBIT B
EXHIBIT C
-Their biggest threat is that they compete with the other organisms in the water for algae and nutrients. There's less food to go around with zebra mussels around.
-The zebra mussels excrete Microcystic; toxic algae that is harmful to other animals
-They attach themselves right on top of mussels that ALREADY live in the Great Lakes (see Exhibit B). As a result, these mussels are rendered unable to retrieve enough nutrients to survive.
-As a side effect of the algae being consumed by the mussels, shrimp - who would normally use algae to hide - are suddenly without shelter from the salmon who are eating them. This will be a devastating blow to the shrimp population, which would also be a blow to the salmon who depend on them for food
-As if the above points weren't terrible enough, they also reproduce very FAST (see Exhibit C - note that there are many, many mussels in a pencil-sized area). According to research done on a SINGLE square meter, the zebra mussel population was able to jump from 1000 to 700000 in a mere six months.
-Finally, they have very few predators in the Great Lakes, meaning that their rapid reproduction is impossible to naturally stop.
Zebra mussels have managed to steal food from other organisms while poisoning them and remain perfectly safe the entire time. Ever since their first appearance in Lake St. Clair in 1986, they've managed to spread to the rest of the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and many other US Lakes. They have managed to seriously endanger several species living in the Great Lakes system, affecting its biodiversity.
It's really funny, seeing as North American isn't even its native home; it's actually the Caspian Sea.
Wait a moment. If their native home is in the Caspian Sea, then what in the world are they doing in the Great Lakes in the first place?
Seeing as there is no way for these mussels to magically show up in Lake St. Clair all on their own, someone must have brought them there. In this particular case, it's widely accepted that the zebra mussels attached themselves to a ship travelling in the Caspian Sea, after which the ship arrived in the Great Lakes a while later, which would allow them to settle in their new home sweet home. The mussels used one of our boats as transport, allowing them to terrorize the Great Lakes ecosystem. In other words: It was humanity's fault. Again.
So what does this say about us and our relationship with the environment? In all fairness, it's not like we're villains, trying with all our might to oppress the animals under our feet; we're simply trying to live our lives as well as we can.
But that's exactly what our problem is. We're so caught up in trying to live our lives as ambitiously as possible that we hardly ever consider the consequences of our actions. We're so determined to get boats to other countries that we don't realise that we might be providing transport to invasive species (although in all fairness, I don't think that too many people could've possibly foreseen this problem).
Perhaps we should try NOT to live too ambitiously...to take up as least space as possible, to try not to make world-impacting actions with unforeseen world-impacting consequences. Use less resources and bother less animals. Maybe then, everyone would be able to sleep a little better.
And not just the humans.
RESOURCES
"Dreissena polymorpha" Global Invasive Species Database. 22 June 2005. Invasive Species Specialist Group. www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=50&fr=1&sts
Nielson, John. "An Upside to the Invasive Zebra Mussel?" 2 Mar 2008. National Public Radio. www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87843464
"Lakes with zebra mussels have higher levels of toxins, MSU research finds" MSU News. 10 Mar 2004. Michigan State University. http://news.msu.edu/story/2305/
"Are Zebra Mussels Re-Shaping Great Lakes Shorelines?" EnviroZine Issue 35. 11 Sep 2003. Environment Canada. www.ec.gc.ca/EnviroZine/english/issues/35/feature3_e.cfm
All photographs came from the above link, original photographers are listed below.
Exhibit A: Dermott, Ron
Exhibit B: Smith, Janice
Exhibit C: Dermott, Ron
4 comments:
Hey Jed,
Your blog was definitely very informative on zebra mussels and their impact on the ecosystems of the Great Lakes. So do you believe that humans are being stewards of the worlds? Clearly, our actions impact the Earth in numerous ways, and in the case of the zebra mussels, quite negatively, though it wasn’t our intention.
I think your idea about people trying to NOT live too ambitiously is going to be quite a hard feat for humans to do. To try to take up as least space as possible, to try not to make world-impacting actions with unforeseen world-impacting consequences is against our nature. Our generation, and those before us, have been raised to live big, impact our world as much as possible, and be ambitious. However I do understand where your coming from and I think that the basis of your idea makes sense, it just won’t happen anytime soon.
Sorry, just nitpicking here: I think that some of your sentences could be shortened and simplified so that they may make more sense, for example “If the smallest of the animals disappears, another bigger animal won't have enough food, meaning that another animal won't have food, resulting in reduced populations.” Though I completely agree with the idea behind this sentence, I think that you could have broken it down much easier.
Overall, great blog, I liked the whole “exhibit A, B, C” idea, and just how you got me thinking about humanity when I read it.
Thanks,
Laura :)
Hey Jed!
Great blog :) You're biblical quote really caught my attention. I thought that it would provide a deeper meaning to the blog itself and provide some background information on what it was going to be about. With all due respect, I found your blog a little confusing though. Majority of the blog was talking about how terrible the zebra mussel is to the rest of our ecosystem. I thought that your main point was about how humans were threatening biodiversity. You mentioned that it was the humans fault that zebra mussels came to North America when all humans did was just travel. Zebra mussels just did what instinct told them to do. So it's not necessarily the humans fault that the Great Lakes have been infested with these pests. I'm just saying that you need to be a little clearer on what your argument is and on what side you are on. You blogged about zebra mussels but your argument was that it was the humans fault. It threw me off a little. Overall, I thought your blog is great and it provided excellent evidence.
I really enjoyed reading it! =)
Tim
Hello Jed!
When I think about to ecosystem really what wasn't brought to mind was the amount of space we take up and how we destroy habitats. I agree complete though, we should all stop our bigotry and allows ourselves to realize that the amount of person space we need, the environment needs.But Human ambition is nature isn't it? Humans are not the only one that are ambitious in fact animals are very ambitious too, just in smaller doses, take into fact that curious bear that strolled into the city, he was probably just hungry and wanted to pick up some McDonalds but everyone knew he didn't belong their, I am sad that with our environment comes no time for flexibility, for instance solar energy would actually save millions of dollars in the long run if we just give it a change, imagine that? Solar powered cars. Allocation of species is usually due to global warming as well, environments are now very unstable and we aren't helping when we park our truck right beside the place where our lake is. Once a caterpillar followed me home on my jacket and I felt bad that it was such a long way from home, but at the same time I think animals need that little push so that they can adapt, because no humans are adapting I hope animals adapt some more.
Hey, I like your quote from the bible in the beginning and the introduction. I agree just like the food chain, biodiversity gets affected due to having no food and preys or predators.Humans has really destroyed and conquered the environments instead of helping out. The picture in exibit B kind of scared me! It looked quite discusting since the zebra mussels looked poisoned and unatural. If the zebra mussels had feelings, I think they would feel bad for trying to eat their own species just because of our doings. All of the environments are connected in which it is life all for one and one for all. One being affected may cause a disaster. If the zebra mussels were smarter, they may reproduce so much that they may come have their revenge on us, humans! I agree that sometimes, what we do is unwanted and unpredictable like how the zebra mussels would be stuck under the ship. It would probably have taken a genius to have predicted this to happen. After our mistakes, we should consider every possible outcome and find a way in which it benefits both us and biodiversity.
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