Oddly, this got me to thinking about a set of novels I read during 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.
After spending weeks 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 – effectively seeding the bush and helping it spread.
This is just one example of a particularly obnoxious plant that is insidiously taking over vast swaths of North America. The species is naturalized 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), I’m surprised that we haven’t tried to modify some kind of bug to take care of it. It does have an economic impact here; it certainly has an impact on the timber industry in other states – but none of the states affected by buckthorn are LUMBER-producing states, so…we don’t do it.
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…
To finish up, I checked up on methodologies under investigation to destroy our accidental destroyer: Fungus Among Us: MTU Student Using Native Fungi to Weaken Invasive Trees. Seems this youngster has discovered a FUNGUS that seems to enjoy feasting on buckthorn! Cultivating SuperPurp as Stone does makes it easier to process into a sprayable liquid. Stone uses an immersion blender to whir the solution to the proper viscosity, then pours the broth into a garden-variety sprayer used for application in outdoor test areas.
“It’s literally mushroom soup,” he says.
Stone, an undergraduate majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology is living proof that you don’t have to wait until you graduate to tackle the complex problems facing the world.
"SuperPurp is Stone’s not-so-secret weapon to beat back the widespread Midwest invasion of two species of invasive buckthorn trees: Rhamnus cathartica and Frangula alnus. The trees are gaining a foothold across the upper Midwest and altering the character of forests. Stone inoculates them with the fungus, weakening the aggressive invaders to give native species a chance to rebound.
Abe Stone, an undergraduate majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology at Michigan Technological University, a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, is living proof that you don’t have to wait until you graduate to tackle the complex problems facing the world."
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
NEWS!: https://www.mtu.edu/unscripted/2024/03/fungus-among-us-mtu-student-using-native-fungi-to-weaken-invasive-trees.html
Image: https://www.honey-plants.com/img/picforcontent/rhamnus-cathartica_3_large.jpg
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