Why, what do you know

Why, What Do You Know!

News of Our Environment

Report to the President: Sustaining Environmental Capital: Protecting Society and the Economy

Read the July 2011 report of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

"First, the economic and environmental dimensions of societal well-being are both indispensable, as well as tightly intertwined. Second, even as the government is rightly focused on the direct threats to the economic aspects of well-being in the form of recession, unemployment, and the stagnation of the standard of living of the middle class, it must not fail to address the threats to both the environmental and the economic aspects of well-being that derive from the accelerating degradation of the environmental capital—the Nation’s ecosystems and the biodiversity they contain—from which flow “ecosystem services” underpinning much economic activity as well as public health, safety, and environmental quality."

Biodiversity Leads to Higher Productivity

ScienceDaily (Mar. 22, 2011) — Ecosystems containing several species are more productive than individual species on their own. Using data from more than 400 published experiments, an international research team has found overwhelming evidence that biodiversity in the plant kingdom is very efficient in assimilating nutrients and solar energy, resulting in greater production of biomass.

"Plant communities are like a soccer team. To win championships, you need a star striker who can score goals, but you also need a cast of supporting players who can pass, defend and keep goal. Together, the star players and supporting cast make a highly efficient team," says Lars Gamfeldt of the Department of Marine Ecology at the University of Gothenburg.

Gamfeldt is part of an international research team led by Brad Cardinale (University of Michigan, USA) which, in a special issue of the scientific journal American Journal of Botany on biodiversity, presents a study on the significance of biodiversity of plants and algae, which form the base of the food chain. The research team based its study on the question whether ecosystems can maintain important functions such as production of biomass and conversion of nutrients when biodiversity is depleted and we lose species. In their quest for answers they have examined hundreds of published studies on everything from single-celled algae to trees. Using data from more than 400 published experiments, the researchers found overwhelming evidence that the net effect of having fewer species in an ecosystem is a reduced quantity of plant biomass.

There are two principal explanations for why species-rich plant communities may be more effective and productive. One is that they have a higher probability of including "super-species," that is to say species that are highly productive and effective in regulating ecological processes. The other is that different species often have characteristics that complement one another. The fact that there is a "division of labour" among different plant species in nature makes it possible for species-rich communities to be more productive. The researchers also note that as a result of climate change and other human impact we are now losing species at a rapid rate. This means that we need to prioritise what we want to protect and preserve, in order to maintain the goods and services humans depend on.

"Nearly every organism on this planet depends on plants for their survival. If species extinction compromises the processes by which plants grow, then it degrades one of the key features required to sustain life on Earth," the principal author of the article Brad Cardinale comments. Gamfeldt is affiliated with both the Department of Marine Ecology at the University of Gothenburg and the Department of Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Our Urban Green Spaces are Important to Biodiversity

Ecologists Use 70-Year-Old Pressed Plants to Chart City's Vanishing Native Flora

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2011) — More than half of the world's population now lives in cities, yet we know little about how urbanization affects biodiversity. In one the first studies of its kind, ecologists in Indianapolis, USA have used 70 year-old dried plant specimens to track the impact of increasing urbanization on plants.

The results are published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Ecology.

Lead by Dr Rebecca Dolan, director of the Friesner Herbarium, Butler University, the team examined 2,800 dried plants collected around Indianapolis before 1940 and compared these with plants they and their students found at 16 field sites between 1996 and 2006.

They discovered that increasing urbanization has wrought major changes to Indianapolis's plant species. Although the city supports a similar number of plant species -- around 700 -- today's flora has fewer native plants and more non-native species, which have been introduced from other parts of the world and are now spreading on their own.

The study found that over the past 70 years, Indianapolis's native plants have been lost at a rate of 2.4 species per year, while over the same period 1.4 non-natives arrive each year. According to Dolan: "This study shows that our flora is becoming less distinctive."

Plants now lost to Indianapolis include Queen-of-the-prairie (Filipendula rubra), a member of the rose family with fantastic wands of pink flowers. It was last found growing in a damp spot by the Water Canal at 52nd Street in July 1935. Another loss is the Virginia bunchflower (Melanthium virginicum), a member of the lily family with striking stalks of white flowers.

Arrivals include the invasive Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) and Amur bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii). "Japanese knotweed was brought to our area as an ornamental. It spreads readily by seed and by root sprouts, forming thickets that choke out native species," says Dolan.

"Amur bush honeysuckle was once promoted by the USDA's Soil Conservation Service for erosion control and wildlife food, but we now know it does neither. Instead, it has spread and become a pest plant, covering the banks of many of the city's streams and woodland edges, and land managers spend a lot of money eradicating it."

The study has important lessons for cities, biodiversity and the potential dangers posed by non-native species.

Because so many of us now live in cities, urban floras are becoming increasingly important. According to Dolan: "As cities continue to grow, urban green spaces are becoming important refuges for native biodiversity and for people. In coming decades, most people's contact with nature will be in urban settings, so the social importance of urban plants has never been greater."

"A clear message for the future is to be careful when planting non-native material, especially in great numbers, due to the likelihood of introduced non-native plants becoming pests," she says.

Bladensburg Tests Permeable Paving

Bladensburg town hall parking lot goes green

New surface of Bladensburg Town Hall parking lot is first of its kind

by Daniel Leaderman | Staff Writer

Bladensburg is bringing the fight against stormwater runoff to its front door — literally.

The Town Hall's new parking lot is a change from a standard asphalt blacktop, offering instead a permeable surface that will allow rainwater to soak into the ground, helping to filtering out pollutants before the water flows into the Anacostia River and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.

The lot is part of a pilot project with the Bladensburg-based Ernest Maier Inc. concrete masonry company, said Mayor Walter James.

"It's a new technology. ... There's actually going to be a study process where they're going to evaluate the longevity [of the lot]," James said.

Since Dec. 3, the surface of the about 960-square-foot lot has been incrementally replaced by concrete blocks — each about 1 square foot — with spaces in between to allow water to pass through. Work on the lot is expected to be finished by Friday.

Underneath the concrete is between three and four feet of gravel, as well as layers of cloth that help filter the water, said Tim McNamara, the town's director of code enforcement and acting director of public works.

The underside of each block is a hollowed arch.

"If for some reason we've had a really big rain, what helps is instead of having a flat surface ... it allows water to come up and almost be like storage," McNamara said.

The project cost about $68,000, half of which is from the town budget and half of which will be given as a property tax credit for Ernest Maier, McNamara said.

The technology came to the town's attention in late October at a design meeting for Bladensburg's green street project, McNamara said. That project is intended to transform a section of Md. Route 450 to make it safer for pedestrians and healthier for the environment.

Brendan Quinn, president of Ernest Maier Inc., said the lot was an excellent way to showcase the new technology, which is being implemented for the first time in the country.

"It's the first of its kind," Quinn said. "The town [gave] us an opportunity to put it in the ground and show what it could do."

Installing the concrete blocks costs about 20 percent more than paving with asphalt, Quinn said, but he estimates it can save about 80 percent in upkeep costs, in part because the blocks won't crack and develop potholes the way asphalt will. If blocks are damaged, they can be removed and replaced on an individual basis, he said.

Furthermore, the blocks were manufactured in Bladensburg, and if the technology catches on, it could create jobs in the town.

"It's a win for the environment and for Bladensburg," Quinn said.

dleaderman@gazette.net

Prince George's Gazette, December 23, 2001

http://www.gazette.net/stories/12232010/greenew173456_32555.php

Our Lawns, Our Bay

Ditch the pipes. Restore natural streams. Turn your lawn into a native-grass meadow. Read about EPA's current efforts to save Chesapeake Bay in David A. Fahrenthold's Washington Post article.Plant Invaders

Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas, long out of print, is back in a revised and updated (4th) edition. The lead author, Jil Swearingen, is a Cheverly resident. Published by the National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service, the 168- page book is available through the Cheverly Garden Club and Friends of Lower Beaverdam Creek.What is Stormwater Runoff and Why Does it Matter?"We all pollute the environment in one way or another, and the rainwater, all it does is it picks it up, mixes it all together, puts it in a pipe and we're having to deal with it somewhere." Urban streams suffer from increased phosphorus concentrations due to the ubiquitous application of lawn and garden fertilizers. Urban areas also increase the nitrogen concentration in rivers for hundreds of miles. Then there are the metals, of which lead, zinc, chromium, copper, manganese, nickel and cadmium are the most common in runoff. Read the full story from the Scientific American blog.

Migrating Birds Need Even Small Wooded Areas

"Even tiny patches of woods in urban areas seem to provide adequate food and protection for some species of migrating birds as they fly between wintering and breeding grounds, new research has found.

"The results are important because, with the expansion of cities worldwide, migrating landbirds increasingly must pass through vast urban areas which offer very little of the forest habitats on which many species rely."

Read the full story from Science Digest, reporting on research in Landscape Ecology and The Condor.

Cooperate for Backyard Biodiversity

"If neighbours in a street were all to coordinate the management of their gardens in a complementary way... the benefits to backyard biodiversity will far outweigh the contribution made by one or two households alone."

The story in Science Digest reports on research in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Do You Know the Alien Burning Bush from the Native American Euomymus?

This booklet from the Delaware Department of Agriculture will help. Mistaken Identity? Invasive Plants and their Native Look-alikes: an Identification Guide for the Mid-Atlantic.

Natives in Your Garden