NOT using the
panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin,
Ireland in August 2019 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)),
I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF
DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation
is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes
reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of
mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
So,
I spent the morning chopping down the invasive tree/bush known as the common
buckthorn…For my money, it is not only annoying, it is an horrendous MONSTER! (https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/106777038_10156827573131324_1338251936212348319_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=9q9yeayXZNAAX8wacF5&_nc_ht=scontent.ffcm1-2.fna&oh=0578f6e378467324c0b4b97446be1500&oe=5F25001B
Oddly,
this got me to thinking about a favorite set of novels from my young adulthood.
I was a pretty freshly minted science teacher. I could teach lots of the
sciences, but my interest had always been in biology.
David
Gerrold, of STAR TREK fame (“The Trouble with Tribbles” in particular), wrote a
unique alien invasion novel (actually a series), that detailed how the Chtorr
had begun their invasion by wiping out a substantial portion of Humanity
through a viral attack.
The
survivors began to find weird plants, animals, and “stuff” all over. The “worms”
are only the most voracious members of the “invasion suite” – but they are terrifying:
“…they range in size from as small as a dog to as large as a bus…They have two
double-jointed ‘arms’…with incredibly sharp claws. Their bodies are covered
with symbiotic ‘fur’, each strand of which is a distinct lifeform and acts as a
sensory input.”
This is a sort of invasive
species on steroids.
Yesterday, I spent
the morning attacking an invasion of a European plant called “common buckthorn”, whose scientific name is Rhamnus
cathartica. It was brought here as an “ornamental shrub” from “from the central
British Isles south to Morocco, and east to Kyrgyzstan.”
It blends in and
is seemingly innocuous, though its scientific name hints at one of its uses in
herbal medicine: “The seeds and leaves are mildly poisonous for humans and most
other animals… [causing] stomach cramps and laxative effects…[suggesting a]
common name purging buckthorn…”
It’s a nasty thing
that grows leaves before most of the rest of the northern species of trees and
grows fast. Local animals don’t graze it; though birds eat the seeds. As well,
the plant contains a chemical called an “emodin”. It made me think of Imodium
when I first saw it and while this over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medication
STOPS diarrhea, emodin causes it. Animals that try and eat the little hard,
black berries drop them all over the place – spreading them everywhere.
This is just one
example of a particularly obnoxious plant that is insidiously taking over vast
swaths of North America. The species is naturalised and invasive in parts of
North America. Rhamnus cathartica has a competitive advantage over
native trees and shrubs in North America because it leafs out before native
species. Of the annual carbon gain in R. cathartica, 27–35% comes from
photosynthesis occurring before the leaves of other plants emerge. Soil in
woodlands dominated by R. cathartica was higher in nitrogen, pH and water
content than soil in woodlands relatively free of R. cathartica,[15][18]
probably because R. cathartica has high levels of nitrogen in its leaves and these leaves decompose rapidly.
"Rhamnus cathartica
is also associated with invasive European earthworms (Lumbricus spp.) in the
northern Midwest of North America. Removing R. cathartica led to a decrease
of around 50% in the biomass of invasive earthworms.
"Soils enriched by
extra nitrogen from decayed buckthorn leaves and…Invasive earthworms (which in
MN means ALL earthworms…)…need rich litter, break [buckthorn leaves] down
rapidly, destroying beneficial fungi and exposing bare soils in the process.
These soils provide ideal conditions for buckthorn germination and seedling
growth but many native trees and shrubs need the beneficial fungi and will not
reproduce without it…it is particularly prevalent in the Great Lakes states of
Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.”
Why can’t we fight
it with 21st Century science? “Numerous potential biocontrol insects
for common and glossy buckthorn were screened for host-specificity and impacts.
Early on, glossy buckthorn biocontrol was eliminated from consideration due to
lack of promising agents. Research continued on common buckthorn. After
11 years of searching for a biocontrol insect that is both host-specific and
damaging to common buckthorn, we concluded that we do not have any promising
agents at this time so we ended the project.”
So, while I’ve
always laughed at the labels that say “Non-GMO” (because Humans have been
genetically modifying organisms since the first Mayan crossbred the first corn
plant to get bigger seeds – by hand and by century: (https://i.redd.it/mbe42vdt49841.jpg),
It's kind of
creepy to realize that some sort of alien Chtorr could set up an alien
ecosystem and we might not even notice it. What if biological invasion is a
LONG-TERM proposition? What if some sort of AI ship or landcraft landed and
proceeded to introduce various species across their normal boundaries, weakening
the entire ecosystem. Then instead of the dramatic “red” invasion of the War Against
the Chtorr, you’d have something virtually unstoppable.
How would we even
know?
How about the
first starship to reach an Earth-like world finds that the lifeforms are
incredibly…familiar; and that the survey shows that a number of the species
they find on the planet are what we would call “invasives” or even “introduced”
– and as far as that goes, pheasants are “introduced” in Minnesota rather than
invasive, because “some people” released them for hunting purposes…
So, I have a
scenario where one of the new colonists is from around here – or find out where
the most invasive species reside – is on the bio-survey team. They can’t find
anything of Human-level intelligence. Then another, farther-reaching mission
finds and makes a First Contact, and their “home world” has species very
familiar on Earth…in fact, their biology is suspiciously Earth-like…
Foundation: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/index.html#:~:text=Minnesota's%20natural%20resources%20are%20threatened,land%20or%20in%20the%20water.,
https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/natural_resources/invasives/terrestrialplants/is-bmp.pdf
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Chtorr#A_Matter_for_Men_(1983),
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.html,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhamnus_cathartica,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emodin,
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.html
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