"Earth's Internet" attempts to document, reference as much of the natural world networking abilities and strategies as possible. Such Scientific findings are at odds with industrial scientific approaches maintaining our planet. Be warned. If your learning approach it based on Memes with short clever quips, you may be disappointed here.
The photograph above was used by science writer, Chris Clark, of Yucca Valley/Joshua Tree high desert fame, who was providing a list of some wonderful Nature Preserves & Reserves to visit in and around San Diego County. It was written back in 2015 and I believe the photo by Scott Davenport was either 2013 or 2014. Wow what a contrast when you look at the other photograph below. Scott Davenport has also taken numerous photos of this same location since which reveal the now dead Torrey Pines. Other people have also, it's a most popular tourist spot. It should be noted that the above photo is usually the only photo which generally is used toadvertise and promote Torrey Pines. What you won't see is today's reality on the ground in a photograph, even from the Torrey Pines State Reserve. Of course it's understandable as to why. For example photographer Phillip Colla took this photos here below.
To be honest, from this angle things look totally dead, but I believe on the other side of the geological formation you can see from a different angle that there is still one live Torrey Pine. What struck me most by the three photographers I'm referencing here, but also all other photographers I've Googled on the net , none of them ever make mention of the dead trees or the changes that have taken place. Their conversation is always about the light, the clouds, the sunset or the sunrise, the geological patterns in the bluffs etc. But nobody says anything about the very trees for which this reserve is named after, Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.
I must admit, I had special hopes from this photgrapher of Broken Hill, Bodhi Smith, who gave this area shot the title, "Broken Emotions." I thought finally someone who was moved not just by the magnificence of the geological patterns, but actually touched by the decline of the native Torrey Pines here at the Reserve and elsewhere which must surely have served for the inspiration behind this photograph's title. Unfortunately, this was not the case. He was entirely on a different track. Beautiful photo though. Take a look at a couple of quotes I extracted from his description:
"I have been trying to catch a special image of this spot for close to one year now, having shown up to this place numerous times only to go away empty handed. But alas, finally last evening I was able to capture something worthy of my own liking."
"I have just been patiently waiting for the right conditions (clouds, sunset, springtime)...so when I got to Broken Hill, I did not need to figure out where I was going to set up for my shot..."
Here's a special plea to all photographers out there who photo things in Nature. First of all, please date them, especially when taking pictures of the same location year after year. Second, while I understand stand the complexities of that photograph shot setup which requires a measure of concentration, patience and tunnel Vision, please consider a peripheral view of things. None of the photographers that I could find who had taken photos of this spot ever commented on the decline in vegetation, in this case Torrey Pines, which if were a rattlesnake, you would have been sent to the emergency room. Kidding of course, but you know what I mean. Your photos are important for ecological documentation reasons although you may be totally unaware of this. Interestingly however, even the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is not interested in today's scenic view. In fact they continue to use an older photograph of "Broken Hill" on the Home page. It's a public relations thing. Go Figure! 😎
Other Locations with Bad News -> North Loop - "The Guy Flemming Trail"
Photo courtesy of Ken Blackford. Copyright Ken Blackford. San Diego, Ca.
Who hasn't visited Torrey Pines State Natural Preserve and stepped off of the old narrow asphalt road where the sign says in bold letters, "North Loop," then right under that, "The Guy Fleming Trail." I've done this many times since the 1960s. This was one of the better and easiest trails to hike and actually get inside of the Torrey Pine forest. Most other trails are broken up with chaparral, but this is forest. Other areas of dense Torrey Pine forest you can only see from a viewpoint distance to protect them. It's also not especially steep or challenging and it takes you right next to the viewpoint of Torrey Pines State Beach overlook. Interestingly the woods at the end of the trail are like the stunted growth of common chaparral we call, "Elfin Forest," because they are windswept by the ocean breezes which have sculpted them this way. Often the signage will comment on the grotesque and/or picturesque shapes and explain the natural phenomena of the windy salty air that created these shapes. But something's changed here as well. As you continue to on ahead walking down a little further in the photo above, you can see in the distance that something has gone terribly wrong here too.
Courtesy of Jeremy Spath, of Spath Gardens, for landscape design and installation in Southern Ca.
Peter Jensen 2017
Almost three years after the green forest photos above were taken, the bark beetles have taken their toll here as well. In actual fact almost everything in the way of older Torrey Pines are dead. This photo at right is provided by the Torrey Pines Association which was founded in 1950 with Guy Fleming as it's first President. The article which accompanied this picture on the right explained why this trail has been closed for a year. Clearly things had to be upgraded from wooden post railings to steel and newer younger trees had to be planted to replace the dead ones. Apparently funds were made available by the Scripts Foundation to complete trail repairs and rehab some of the main attraction ecological features. It will be decades before people we begin to see a glimpse of the beauty that one existed there before. Below here is an except from the article with link by Peter Jensen.
"Poor High Point! A good number of trees have died here in recent years, victims of the drought, and the old railing made of peeler poles was usually in a state of falling-down disrepair. But this trail is finally on the “come back."
To be honest, when my wife and I visited back in 2014, we noticed not much of anything living was doing very well. Take this example photograph of how poorly even the normally tough and resilient chaparral was doing within the Torrey Pines Reserve boundaries. Not good. 😕
So is the obvious answer Global Warming ??? 😵🌄
The obvious popular answer of course is climate change and the last five years of drought. Add to that higher than normal temperatures and less rainfall and those are ideal conditions for pine bark beetles to do their dirty work. If conditions are normal as far as the soil's mositure content sense, then Torrey Pines should be able to manufacture enough sap or pitch to ooze into those bore holes drilled by a pine bark beetle who wants to lay eggs and hatch young. The sap or pitch would drown out any of the beetle larva. So in normal average rainfall years, San Diego and Del Mar average around 10 or 11 inches of annual rainfall, but of course for the past five years they have only received half that amount or less and have had to endure much higher than average Temperatures. So that sounds reasonable as to a cause, but something's just not jiving next door at the Torrey Pines Country Club and Golf Course.
Image - yourgolftravel.som
Photo by Jacob Sandoval
One of the puzzling anomalies regarding the death of torrey Pine trees are the loss of trees at the world class Torrey Pines Golf Course. Now as understandable as it is to see Torrey Pine trees dying at the State Reserve which is the neighbour to the north because of drought, it's tough to phathom what's really going on next door at the golf course. Even "IF" there is climate change, drought, less than average rainfall, none of those things should matter at the golf course which is loaded with massive amounts of water availability. After all, Golf Courses use more water than anywhere else, especially in the drier climates of the southwest or you don't get green grass. Plus there are the other factors of normally hotter months like May & June being cloud covered here with what they term "May Gray" or "June Gloom." Temps at their hottest here are generally in the 70s Fahrenheit or 20s Celsius. And yet take a close look at this photo of a dead tree in the middle of green wet grass taken by Jacob Sandoval. I'm always telling people who want to plant natives which prefer things a little on the dry side, don't plant next to or in lawns because this is comparable to things like a lakes or bogs when it comes to constant available water. Watch this video below.
This video below was done by San Diego resident, Dale Williams, who argues that aluminum, in combination with acid fog, weakens Torrey Pine trees and was the primary cause of their die-off in 2014-16. Frankly, I'm not altogether sure, but here is Dale William research take on the subject.
This photo above the video are the bark beetle pheromone traps used to attract and capture these little pests that are killing the trees. The link below the photo is from News 8 (CBS) in San Diego which aired back in January 2016. The second video is from ABC 10 News just a couple of months later. Take note however that in both videos, we're not talking drier areas like Torrey Pines State Reserve, but rather trees inside green lawns in both the gold course and city of Del Mar. The news reporters said that the traps should help save the trees until winter rains come, but that's nonsense since these trees have incredible access to water already, plus Torreys have always been subject in Nature to drier habitat locations. Former Nature Film producer, Jim Karnik (no deceased as of earlt last year 2017), also provided a good video on this very subject. It's a pity that many environmental groups paid little attention to Jim's passing away. In fact this video below which appears to be his last, only received 55 views EVER. I guess non-profits are more interested in donations and membership drives.
For a very long time now I have wondered if maybe the underground microbiology could itself be in decline in many areas as well. Most humans only have in their minds things that we can see. The underground microbiome is completely out of sight and therefore out of mind. Think of the forest as a sort of an amusement park like Disneyland. The tourists only see the beaty colour and glitter of the theme part, but they never see the behind the scenes sophistication of the machinery, computer systems, staff, security, etc, etc, etc that make it all work and function smoothly. Many nature lovers assume that nothing could possibly harm that tough microbiological community. That's why when I've suggested people inoculate plants at time of planting, even in the wild, the typical sarcastic response I have gotten has been, "You don't need to inoculate because fungal spores are just everywhere out there in the air." Not a very scientific take, but more of a blind faith affirmation. Human beings have so radically changed nature's surroundings, that past normal behaviours of the natural world are not responding and functioning as they once did. Yes, mycorrhizal fungal spores are no doubt well populated within many healthy wild soils like the large population of fungal spores taken from a soil sample in the photo above-right by Soil Scientist & Mycorrhizal Fungi Specialist, Dr Wendy Taheri.
But she also sampled industrially maintained agricultural soil from somewhere in the Midwest in which a big commercial farmer had followed the recommended agricultural practices as recommended by biotechs and agro-chemical corporations. The difference is stunning and not what you think when you look at both sample photos side by side. The picture here with less spores has far less than you think. Those really tiny white looking spores are not mycorrhizal fungal spores at all, but rather soil Nematode pest eggs which attack plant roots. So it's still puzzle as to the gold course and Del Mar city properties which are well water. But they are also industrially maintained through science-based synthetic chemical regimens. This is what I question and focus on. After all this blog is about underground soil networks mainly dealing with mycorrhizal fungi networks and plant root system infrastructure. Hence, "Earth's Internet." Not to mention the other fascinating phenomena associated with both. This is why I wrote back on July 2014 about not finding specific truffles of Pisolithus tinctorius mycorrhizae in my favourite collecting locations in the San Jacinto Mountains anymore. (See Here)
Photo is mine from
My photo 2016
(Pinus sabiniana) in Ranchita
Prior to the missing mushrooms or puffballs, the Coulter and Jeffrey Pines just above Anza Valley within the Table Mountain area had been in major decline. Trees everywhere were dying, but I had first noticed that the puffballs or truffles were now missing when previously there were always 100s of them after a summer monsoon Thundersstorm or even in their Springtime crop appearance. Everything to do with mycorrhizal fungi shut down and then next the trees went. Oddly enough I found other valuable collecting locations in the forests and chaparral biomes south of the gold mining town of Julian in San Diego county. The picture above is the truffles I found south of Julian. In the year 2014, I remote planted a Foothill or Digger Pine (Pinus sabiniana) on some of his wild acreage far away from any irrigation sources in Ranchita, California in eastern San Diego county above Borrego Springs. I planted this foot tall one gallon container tree you see here in the photo in between the native chaparral (next to a scrub Oak). My brother watered them that first summer (we planted in summer with temps at 104 F) clear thru to winter, he didn't need to water thereafter. The tree as you can see here is now about three to four foot tall as of 2016. He recently told me it's much bigger now. My point here is that the microbiome is important and it may be in decline like everything else we see. I've successfully remote planted Torrey Pines in a low elevation mountain range around El Cajon, Santee and Lakeside. Most locals know it as Rattlesnake Mountain. Here is a link to my successful experience in this hotter than coastal conditions with Torrey Pines which proved far healthier than those along the coast and in drought conditions. But even these important components may be in decline at Torrey Pines State Reserve and explain far more than just hotter temps and lack of rainfall. These trees have been here for 1000s of years and I've certainly not seen the serious problems there in my lifetime like we have now.
Wild Torrey Pines on Rattlesnake Mountain in between the cities of El Cajon and Santee
You should know that now the Torrey Pines on Rattlesnake Mountain no longer exist. They were all between 25' to 30' high. Biggest ones were actually starting to produce cones, but the Sky Ranch Housing Development residents took offense the the presence of the Torrey Pines and chain sawed every one of them down. When I came back for a visit I found them all missing. The neighbours all saw me and came out yelling what I was doing back there. I told them I was photographing Coast Cholla colonies and the Torrey Pines but they were gone. I was informed that the Torrey Pines were a fire hazzard and actually caused fire (which was an ignorant thing to say and poor excuse for killing them). Then I was told that the police were being called because I was trespassing on Rattlesnake Mountain Conservation Area preserve. So I left and never came back. I got in contact with the Center for Natural Lands Management and the Naturalist in charge of the area's oversight and he feigned ignorance about the trees ever being there. This was an untruth because when Sky Ranch Construction began, a survey of all plants and animals was done well ahead of time and conservation sensitive area tape was all around this huge area. So I figured the chainsaw activity had his organization's blessing. Doesn't matter, they weren't native, wasn't my land and it's not worth the hatred I incurred by the residents. The destruction took place in 2013.
This photo is mine from 2018, Table Mountain 4,500' elevation east of Anza CA
Some important info you should know about these Torrey Pines and my experience with planting them as small seedlings back in 2005. Climate is much more radically different than along the Del Mar coast where the seed originated. The early and middle 1980s were rough years freezing termperature-wise. Back then every years for about five years we experience a northeastern high winds which brought frigid arctic air down from Canada. The Coachella Valley lost numerous grapefruit citrus orchards. These Torrey Pines at six foot tall experienced temperatures down to 6- below 0 Fahrenheit which is 21- Celsius. We experienced terrible Santa Ana high winds with gusts 60 to 70 miles per hour and through it all these trees survived. Only real damage was from the tips of all needles back one half an inch the needles turned brown. However, also during those years in summers, the trees all grew over three to four foot in height. When I experimented with outplanting seed in wild areas of the property, they germinated and emerged pushing up through the snow in March which is early for most native Pinyon, Coulter & Jeffrey pines trees up there, but apparently no visible signs of damage. It was an amazing experience and there is still so much more to know about these amazing trees. You should know that other Anza area residents have also grown huge Torreys, but down in the valley at 4,000' elevation.
"No bush of the field was yet on the earth and no vegetation of the field had begun sprouting, because Jehovah God had not made it rain on the earth and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist [fog, vapor] would go up from the earth, and it watered the entire surface of the ground."
For the moment before you freak out about the quoted text from Genesis, dump all the secular ideological baggage against the source referenced above and focus here for a change. I'll explain why I quoted this text above from Genesis down below at the bottom of this post. There are whole plant ecosystems around the Earth which are not necessarily hydrated by conventional storm systems we are all familiar with, but rather from a hydrological phenomena originating from fog, vapor or even a mist. I've written about some of these in the past such as Ascension Island, Canary Islands and even minerotrophic systems such as those that receive no rainfall ever like large Oasis in the Sahara of North Africa which predominantly are hydrated by means of underground springs. Yet the plants within those ecosystems do thrive and replicate themselves. Here is an update on some things I wrote previously about Ascension Island.
The photograph above is of a man made pond create near the top of Green Mountain on Ascension Island. There are water Lilies and some tiny goldfish in the pond. This pond was constructed near an area ravine which was historically given the name Dampiers Drip. It is kept filled not by normal precipitation such as rain, but rather cloud forest condensation, fog, mist, vapor etc.
Ascension Island is near St Helena in the Southern Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America. Right west of Angola if that gives some reference for you. The island wasn't always looking like the big green lush photograph you see above. It looked a lot more like on of the volcanic islands of Spain's Canary Islands. When Charles Darwin visited Ascension Island in 1836 on his voyage with the ship Beagle, he declared it to be "naked hideousness". But it was British Botanist Sir Joseph Hooker, who had the bright idea of planting trees on the mountains which would bring more rainfall. His idea or scheme is what the researchers call "Terra Forming." The raw canvas both these men saw was much like the smaller photo to the right with volcanic rock, lifeless looking soils and very little life other than maybe biological soils crusts. Mostly lichens, mosses, algaes and ferns. No indigenous or introduced & naturalized shrubs or trees anywhere. I wrote an article about another article on Ascension Island which I will reference in a link below of this beautiful green island picture at the top. What appalled me were the critics of Fred Pearce's article on lessons we can learn as far as ecosystem function. You see in Ascension's early history, there were no ponds, springs or streams. There was no real fresh water source anywhere when the British outpost was first set up on the island. There was one small spring, but it was remote and couldn't support any human settlement. Most all water and other supplies had to be brought in by ship. In this time of dire climate change, it was a golden opportunity for scientists and other researchers to come and study plant community mechanisms on what creates cloud formation, moderates weather and causes precipitation. Keep in mind that this island's transformation has taken place in little over 100 + years. However, I kid you not, very few Scientists are interested in studying this transformation and weather mechanism, why ?
Image: BBC News
Conservation Officer, Stedson Stroud finding a supposedly extinct Fern
Mostly the vicious criticism came from ideologically driven EcoActivist Groups who freaked out over the Island's non-native invasive plant species which totally fogged the real issue here and that is how to reverse climate change and repair our damaged Earth. There is no argument that invasiveness and a screwed up planet in general can be found everywhere. Numerous things were done many many years ago which we can not do nothing about, but what these people were missing was the climate driving mechanisms of the Acesion Island forest. The other argument was that existing endemic species had disappeared or were going extinct. The photo to the left here is of Green Mountain's Conservation Officer, Stedson Stroud, who found what was insisted upon to be an extinct Fern. The volcanic island prior to human influence was once sterile looking true desert island from a visual point of view other than small plants and biological soil crusts. But it's this artificially introduced vegetation growth that apparently offends many of this Ideologues for nothing more than blind faith reasons. Once again just to repeat, prior to these introduced plants, the island was mostly a collection of Biological Soil Crusts [bacteria, lichens, mosses, algae, Ferns, etc]. But you cannot communicate anything with these types of people whose view themselves as the only ones qualified as keepers of all knowledge and any understanding on how our Earth works. Their precious hallowed topic (biological diversity) is generally considered their prerogative. Any understanding must first go through them. I once got myself in hot water about a year and a half ago when a person from a desert protection ecology group posted a photograph of their favourite outback Badlands spot at the Anza Borrego Desert. I made an innocent comment about how many people would view such a place as nothing more than a desolate wasteland, but I saw it as having great future potential. I merely meant potential in creating an environment of a healthy viable desert plant community which would further benefit all manner of other desert wildlife. But the commenter was outraged and I was hammered. In their view, it was perfect as is and any thought of even desert plants, animals and birds thriving there was repugnant. Whatever people! It wasn't even worth giving a response. Things are not as bad on the Ascension Island as the outraged scientists want us to believe, who would rather the plant life be removed. Seriously, you have to read it to believe it. Actually, I've written Stedson and he has been busy with tough job of keeping under control one of the native plants from the Southwestern United States, Mesquite, which has spread by seed by wild feral Burros. He also has had to keep up with capturing and removing over 500 cats which were killing off the native sea birds and their young on the plains below. So clearly some things need correcting. I wrote to Stedson a message and thanked him for his hard work and to keep it up despite the vicious criticism they received. He responded with this:
"Thank you kindly for those words above, I sometimes feel let down and used by the very people I have helped and trust. But as a committed conservationist, I keep going, earlier this year I discovered a new algae and a new to science fungi in a sea vent on the South East coast of Ascension."
Of course not all is lost as much of the alarmist fear mongering insisted would happen. Below is a short paragraph from another article about Ascension Island back in December 16, 2010
"Beneath the summit ridge on Green Mountain, on the lawns of a small garden, Mr Stroud nurtures indigenous plants. He discovered one fern only a couple of years ago—a species hidden for centuries. He plants the successes under a huge fig tree on the ridge. When they flourish he takes them further out into what on other islands would be the wild, but here is the artifice, returning occasionally to check up on them and take more seed. While he and his successors are here, those ferns and grasses will be safe from extinction. And a few are taking the initiative themselves. Xiphopteris ascensionis, a tiny endemic fern, had never seen a tree before the Victorian planters came. Now it lives in and on them, nestled in their moist bark, pioneering the epiphytic way of life familiar from ancient forests around the world and discovered afresh in their youngest cousin. Life, with helping hands, adapts."
Below are a couple examples of the Endemic Natives successfully mixing and taking better advantage provided by the non-native invasive plants which have provided further opportunity for them to excel and thrive more so than previously. I know many out there from the ideologically driven purist gang (Center for Biological Diversity, etc) don't want to hear or see such success stories, but to quote one of their own hallowed blind faith afirmations, "Life Finds A Way." First, take a close look at the Mist/Fog Pond near the top of Green Mountain. Near the summit of this Green Mountain is the Dew Pond which is actually kept filled with water captured from plant foliage from the Mist/Fog that moves across the landscape from the surrounding Atlantic Ocean, constructed in 1875. There are water Lilies and some tiny goldfish in the pond. I believe the pond was constructed near an area ravine which was historically given the name Dampiers Drip.
The photos above and below are of the interactions between the so-called escaped invasive plants and the endemic mosses and lichens which outraged eco-activists says would all go extinct as a result of the introductory species. But it hasn't worked out that way. No doubt Phenotypic Plasticity and Epigenetic Gene Expression influenced by newer Environmental Cues allowed these endemic plants to engineer and adapt themselves within a symbiotic relationship on their new host plants.
image: Arkive.org Fern (Xiphopteris ascensionensis) and Moss most likely on a Laurel tree branch
Some Further Reading Reference on Ascension Island
Another interesting paper co-authored by Stedson Stroud of the Conservation Depart. of Georgetown on Ascension Island and David C Catling from the University of Washington
The subject of Climate Change is all over the Global News, but what you won't find in the Nightly News are success stories of how Nature drives and maintains climate on Ascension and Canary Islands.And when News Journals do draw attention, it's merely a token acknowledgement nature story as something of local interest and then shelved away. The actual education of John Q-Public of the interesting biological mechanisms which make the whole climate thing a success never rakes place because demonizing one's political opponents and their worldview is generally the goal. Once again, this subject should be in the main stream news. But it's not, other than the political back biting and positioning one team over another. The questions that are not being asked here are, "What are the mechanisms which make the global climate function, what creates clouds and moderates the weather, how does rainfall and other precipitation really occur and what do plants have to do with that ?" But we don't get such questions or their answers. There are plenty of other examples like Easter Island where uncontrolled deforestation hurt the population in the end. Other examples of desertification in Africa and the American southwest as the result of plant communities being obliterated for short term profit potential could be helped once again to a recovery by further research and understanding of how these mechanisms function. If vegetation removal causes less rain and mega-droughts, shouldn't replanting reverse that ?
Interestingly there are several scholars who have shown that, on the island of Madeira (Portugese island in the Atlantic), that the water fog collected by vegetation – the occult precipitation – constitutes an important component of their hydrologic system, reaching, under ideal conditions, more than 60% of the total water that annually falls in the forest ground. Take the example here on the right of droplets of occult precipitation (fog mist) in this tree heath – Erica arborea on Madeira Island. There is an interesting dictionary definition given on the term "Occult Precipitation", which defines the mist or fog rain phenomena as a form of precipitation which cannot be measured, then just how much of that mystery water have many areas actually lost during this climate shifting ? If most of the measurable rain records show major declines, how much more so of this un-measurable precipitation has been lost if we could actually put a number on it ? Nobody seems interested enough to ask. Clearly, some of these Fog or Mist capturing devises should be transformed into remote weather stations for monitoring in certain areas for measurements of marine layer precipitation.
Cloud water interception in the high altitude tree heath forest (Erica arborea L.) of Paul da Serra Massif on Madeira
But what about all those other Myths, Fables, Storytelling historically condemned by the prevailing Scientific Orthodoxy ???
Throughout the 20th century, there have been many stories or legends about natural phenomena which were written or spoken about in ancient times by various cultures and peoples who for the most part have been regarded as mere superstitions, myths, fables, etc by today's various intellectual elites. But I have always been really intrigued and curious about what real natural world phenomena they were first hand eye witness observers to and from which they could only explain things based on their limited knowledge of things like science. For example, about a month ago I watched a science documentary about the first discovery of many of the new animals originally found and documented by scientists in Australia when Europeans first colonized. There was debate over whether Duckbilled Platypus actually laid eggs or gave live birth. The Aboriginal natives had told the White Europeans that the Platypus laid eggs, but this was discounted as a fable and myth, because these peoples were illiterate, ignorant, primitive savages and what could they possibly know that a white European scientist couldn't discover and verify. Until that happened, such a thing was ridiculous. As it turned out such official verification and discovery was up to British Scientist William H. Caldwell. Click on this link and read the first short paragraph under introduction. It verifies what the BBC documentary I watched said:
"The central narrative of this paper is the 'discovery' by British scientist W H Caldwell that monotremes (platypus and echidna) lay eggs. The famous telegram 'monotremes oviparous, ovum meriblastic' (monotremes lay eggs of the same sort as reptiles), sent to the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Canada in 1884, put to rest a debate about whether platypus laid eggs or had live young that had raged throughout the century. The story reveals much about the imperial shaping of scientific knowledge. Observers in Australia and Aboriginal informants, who had asserted that platypus laid eggs, had been disbelieved. 'Discovery' was reserved for Caldwell, a British scientist of impeccable scientific lineage."
Another interesting natural phenomena which in the past hasn't receive much press or given much acknowledgement is the incredible phenomena of Mushroom or Truffle formation by mycorrhizal fungi almost not long after Lightning Storm occurrs. The Romans and Greeks both recorded such observations, but these have been condescendingly dismissed by most Scientists as myths or fables if you've tried to research the literature. The accounts have been categorized under what are a part of the Roman and Greek Mythologies. Then of course there are also the Bedouins of the Negev who call these desert truffles ‘the thunder fungus’ and so do other African peoples who search for the Kalahari Desert Truffles after lightning storms. But I've also known of this from personal observation back in the 1980s when I would go out to search for Pisolithus tinctorius mycorrhizal truffles. Certainly many would appear in Spring, but especially after the Monsoonal Thunderstorm season hit Anza California starting around the first of July. Almost two weeks after the heaviest Thunderstorms hit our area my favourite collection areas would provide a mother-lode of them. They are edible and sometimes they would still be a fresh white colour, but I wanted dried truffles for their spores for inoculation of my plant's rootsystems. So I waited a while for them to age. The main point is, while I always knew the location, I never knew the when until after Lightning Storms. Here is a previous post of mine where I providedreferences giving some legitimacy to what the Experts have labeled myths about truffle formation after lightning storms.
Then of course there are what many would call the biblical creation myths. Okay, I get the arguments and dislike Secular Scientists & their modern day IFL members have against Christendom. Frankly, I don't care for many of their beliefs or their historical atrocious conduct either, but the newer 20th & 21st century enlightenment Free-Thought Gang hasn't exactly managed the world's affairs any better since they began asserting their own version of religious Orthodoxy's influence over the world's affairs. Pushing that baggage aside for the moment, let's go back and look at the referenced verse 6 of Genesis 2 below and read it.
Genesis 2:6 - Amplified Bible
"But there went up a mist (fog, vapor) from the land and watered the whole surface of the ground"
This scriptural text has always intrigued me since the early 1960s when it was first read to me. Why ? Because it's odd, it's not normal, sounds crazy and out of touch with today's reality as I understood normal hydrology and climate. In other words, I've only understood rainfall coming from an actual storms off oceans, moving over land masses and dumping rain. Still, in view of how other peoples have been treated in the past by so-called intellectuals which were proven wrong, could there really be any shade of truth to this description by ancient peoples from a time period in which our natural world's climate driving mechanisms were more intact, even if this were only a mere unexplainable observation ? So I asked myself, could this original writer have also been recording information as he actually observed it back several thousand years ago ? So was this writer recording phenomena occurring as it was normal and common to him and others thousands of years ago ? Ultimately I really have no idea to be sure. But the location where these texts were written down was in the Sinai Peninsula which is right next door to where moisture is observed hydrating the various ecosystems within those western Saudi Arabia Mountains today next to the Red Sea. Once again I still have no real clue, and it was this puzzle got me interested more and more in just how plants could hydrate an entire community through a mycorrhizal fungal networks under pristine healthy vegetative conditions which would have been more common then in ancient times thousands of years before our planet with it's present 8+ billion humans who have mostly defoliated this Earth. What we can acknowledge is that the present mist or fog precipitation phenomena didn't always occur on Ascension island prior to the introduction of Trees, Shrubs and other plants. But now at present it does occur as a result of the trees and shrubs which took over and created a cloud forest. Also we know now that desertification does indeed occur when vegetation is removed from an environment. Given the fact that far less humans existed at that time period and more healthy vegetative systems were most likely in existence 1000s of years ago than today, it could be reasonable to assume such a common hydrological system was real at one time.
Even Austrian Forester and Physicist Viktor Schauberger (1878-1958) who wrote extensively about water and often tried to describe a phenomena of upwards movement of water (soil's natural capilliary action) within healthy old growth forests by attributing such phenomena to some sort of mysterious energy, had the prevailing scientific community of critics who thought he was a crackpot. How could he possibly have ever known what we do today about old growth forests incredible ability at Hydraulic Lift and redistribution ? But he did however make observations of pure clean water springs and brooks disappearing after old growth forest trees were cut down. He attributed it to the sun having a negative effect of draining power away from the naturally occurring energized water as he called it. Today however we know far more than he did and yet he was correct that such a phenomena did indeed exist. We do know about hydraulic lift and redistribution. We do known the phenomena of a soil's capillerary action with both upwards and downward movement of water. This phenomena is further enhanced by other phenomena by deep rooted Trees & Shrubs in what is known as Hydraulic Lift & Redistribution & Hydraulic Descent. While much research into both of these has been undertaken by some researchers, the public in general is oblivious to most of this infavour of conventional science. The main problem with today's intellectual movement is that they will automatically discount such phenomena for no other reasons than they hate of the messengers. That's irresponsible, but clearly throughout time, this has been the historical precedent. How many important discoveries have been stifled because of the condescending arrogance by the ruling elite Scientific Orthodoxy which controls most thought in our world today ? At least for the people who know me and what I am talking about, this phenomena and other intriguing complex networked functions which move and provide moisture to sustain ecosystems, this gives hope and promise that based on many of these facts, that our earth can be biologically repaired and made a more sustainable place in which to reside. The only thing that stands in the way is proper leadership around the globe. As time pants on to the end, count on this leadership getting weirder and weirder. This doesn't let the whole of Christendom off the hook either for their refusal to denial of global climate change because they involve themselves within a certain specific segment of rightwing politics which is opposed to leftwing secularism:
Still, for the moment, people can still decide what to believe and make practical application where important. Take special note of something I wrote about yesterday which can speed up the process.
Scientists observe the step-by-step process by which a fungus attacks a mineral to extract vital nutrients
Image credit - Henry Teng The researchers found the fungus Talaromyces flavus in a Chinese mine, eating up minerals and extracting iron and magnesium
"All over the world, microbes destroy rocks to access precious nutrients like the iron locked inside. In a lab in Washington, D. C., researchers zoomed in on one particular microbe, the fungus Talaromyces flavus, to see just how this is done."
In a paper published this month in Geology, the researchers document their observations of the fungus as it obliterates its rocky environment using a mix of acid and mechanical force. Although it’s known that microbes like bacteria and fungi can wear away rocks, previous researchers estimated that fungi only contribute 1% to total bioweathering, said Henry Teng, a geochemist at George Washington University and coauthor of the paper. After watching T. flavus burrow into the mineral to extract essential nutrients, Teng and his team suggest that fungal weathering could actually be 40%–50% of all bioweathering.
I really do not want to repost the entire article, but there were so many gems in this one which offer pause, pondering and meditation. For example, maybe I should have titled my blog, Earth's Interface".Definition: "Interface":
Noun 1. a point where two systems, subjects, organizations, etc. meet and interact. "the interface between accountancy and the law"
2. COMPUTING a device or program enabling a user to communicate with a computer. "a graphical user interface"
Verb 1. interact with (another system, person, etc.). "you will interface with counterparts from sister companies"
2. COMPUTING connect with (another computer or piece of equipment) by an interface. "the hotel's computer system can interface automatically with the booking system"
“Compared to bacteria, fungi are overlooked, understudied, and very few studies [looked] at these interfaces between fungi and mineral,” said Steeve Bonneville , a biogeochemist at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium who was not involved in the paper, which he called “a very solid study.” The new research provides evidence that “fungi can be a major player in mineral alteration and more generally in biogeochemical cycles,” Bonneville said.
Panning for platinum grains in Brazil: Frank Reith, University of Adelaide, and Barbara Etschmann, Monash University.
Another fascinating question was recently explored, "Why do we see flakes of palladium, platinum and other heavy elements on the surface of the Earth?" It’s been presumed that geological processes dredge them up from the interiior. Yup, sure enough, that's what I always thought. Volcanoes, Tectonic uplift etc brought to the surface all those traces elements. But in an Australian study, the scientists found that bacteria play a major role in this. The article in PhysOrg quotes Frank Reith from the University of Adelaide:
“Traditionally it was thought that these platinum group metals only formed under high pressure and temperature systems deep underground, and that when they were brought to the surface through weathering and uplift, they just sat there and nothing further happened to them,” says Dr Reith.
“We’ve shown that that is far from the case. We’ve linked specialised bacterial communities, found in biofilms on the grains of platinum group minerals at three separate locations around the world, with the dispersion and re-concentration of these elements in surface environments.
So to make a long story short, these “nuggets of platinum and related metals can be reformed at the surface through bacterial processes.”
“We’ve shown the biofilms occur across a range of platinum-group-metal grains and in different locations,” says Dr Reith. “And we’ve shown, that at the Brazil site at least, the entire process of formation of platinum and palladium was mediated by microbes.”
There is so much tonage of understanding that scientists still do not know, but by nature are often reluctant to admit. This is why bioethics within industrial science are so important and it behooves those scientists to learn humility. How often lately are we reading expressions in science studies and journals like, "We were shocked to find," totally unexpected," "now we know," etc etc etc. So much for other terms like, "Settled Science" or "Scientific Consensus" which is what Biotechs and Agro-Chemical companies and their researchers hide behind to justifiy their technology. As Henry Teng said:
“Most of the nutrients in rock and soil are in geological form. Roots cannot directly use that. Plants depend on the fungi to colonize their roots.”
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Image: Max Planck Institute
Fluorescent microscopy image of a root of Arabidopsis thaliana (violet) surrounded by a fungal mesh of Colletotrichum tofieldiae (green). The mesh also grows within the root cells.
"Plants take on fungal tenants on demand"
The above title is from an article on March 17th 2016 from the Max Planck Institute which reveals how plants send signals to potential fungal partners when vital nutrients like phosphorus are scarce and the plant is incapable of acquiring these abundant, but unavailable nutrients on their own. This also sheds light on why heavy application of synthetic fertilizers in agriculture will trigger an epigentic off switch and shut down a crop plant's chemical signaling system which alerts potential fungal partners to please colonize this host. In fact, the biotechs have shut the system down altogether in many of their cultivators either by accident or deliberately. This creates a dependency in GMO Seeds on the Agro-Chemical industries synthetic wares. For me personal, a major clue on this came from watching the interviews of India and Mexican peasant farmers who failed with GMO seeds said their earlier traditional hierloom seed varieties didn't require all the fertilizer applications with the new biotech engineered seeds. Monsanto as much as admitted this when they said the reasons Indian farmers failed was because they didn't use the chemicals the seeds were designed to work with for higher yield. See folks, they've known about this all along and sheds light on why the industrial Ag business model spends millions on disinformation public relations campaigns. Below is the forward abstarct and link to the whole article.
For a long time, it was thought that the sole role of the immune system was to distinguish between friend and foe and to fend off pathogens. In fact, it is more like a microbial management system that is also involved in accommodating beneficial microorganisms in the plant when required. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne in collaboration with an international consortium of other laboratories discovered this relationship between the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, or thale cress, and the fungus Colletotrichum tofieldiae. The plant tolerates the fungus when it needs help in obtaining soluble phosphate from the soil and rejects the microbe if it can accomplish this task on its own.
There was an interesting piece in Science Daily which admitted that there was an urgent need to collect wild ancestor plants of today's crop plants because the vast volumes of genetic information for fighting diseases, climate change etc could be lost if they are not found and locked away in that precious seed vault. These genes will contain the vital information for plant/fungal symbiosis which has been complete lost or shut down by genetic engineering. Fungi are vital for plant drought resistance for which messing arond with genomes for a Drought Guard patent is worthless. But even this may not be enough.
Why people should be very afraid of what the actual consequences of the Industrial Agricultural practices are doing to the Earth
Scary news comes from researchers showing that not only plants, but also microbes may not be able to adapt to climate change as once imagined.
(Kevin Griffin/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
"Cotton grass flowers on the tundra of northern Alaska. These and other cold-region plants do not respond as steadily to increasing heat as previously thought, according to a new study.
Microbes in soil — organisms that exert enormous influence over our planet's carbon cycle — may not be as adaptable to climate change as most scientists have presumed, according to a paper published March 2 in PLOS One.
The scientists found less adaptability than they expected, even after 17 years. While the microbial make-up of the samples did not change much at all, the microbes in both sets of transplanted soils retained many of the traits they had in their "native" climate, including to a large degree their original rate of respiration.
UCI graduate student Caitlin Looby is exploring the effects of global warming on the soil fungi communities of a mountain cloud forest in Monteverde, Costa Rica. UCI
Soil fungi and plants have developed a mutually beneficial arrangement. Some fungi help plants by growing into their root cells and increasing the root surface area available to absorb water and nutrients. In turn, plants give the fungi the sugars they crave. Other fungi facilitate the breakdown of plant material, which releases carbon dioxide.
“These mountains provide a unique opportunity to predict how soil fungi will change in response to climate,” Looby said. “The properties of these mountain soils are sensitive to the rising cloud layer. Our work demonstrates that fungal community composition shifts with elevation and with climatic factors that co-vary with belowground responses to elevation, such as temperature and moisture.”
I can attest to the fact that both plants and soil organisms work best when the soil temps are much cooler. This photo at right here of my old place in the San Jacinto Mountains is a prime example. In the beginning when I planted trees in the open ground, temps were not uncommon at 90+ Fahrenheit [32 Celsius]. Although I inoculated them with fungal spores, the pine seedlings stayed stuck in neutral until I placed a thick layer of bark and pine straw mulch around the tree at a four foot diameter. You could almost instantly see a difference in the needles which change position to a more upright one as opposed to drooping downwards. And this dispite the fact that the ground was damp and wet from watering. Root systems operate at maximum efficiency when they are cool. Hence the reasons in nature why seedlings grow better with nurse plants or mother trees. Aside from the obvious underground interfacing within the mycorrhizal grid. While above ground foliage grow may be slowed or even stopped altogether when temps are cold or frigid, I've always noticed root growth often continues. This was obvious when I did wild outplanted pine nut experiments where even the warmer climate pine seedling emergence would even push up through the snow in Spring. Once germinated and above ground, the seedling would stay in park until further warmer weather arrived. But you can bet there was still underground infrastructure activity going on. Climate Change will definitely impact all ecosystems irrespective of where they are located around the globe. The Industrial Ag business model is not the answer and in fact it's a major part of the problem despite the propaganda to the contrary (See - Climate Change & Industrial Agriculture's "Get-Out-of-Jail-Free" card). A biomimetic approach is the only answer, but only if all humans around the globe are on the same page with how Nature actually works. Given the insaneness around the globe in all the News reports, this is probably the last thing on most people's minds. Especially today's youth who are taking over running the planet and with little or no understanding of how old growth plant ecosystems actually work. This includes young College Science students. I mean, what's left of the natural world for them to actually study ??? How about the "World According to Monsanto" ???
I usually post more references, but I think you've got more than enough above!
Who hasn't visited Torrey Pines State Natural Preserve and stepped off of the old narrow asphalt road where the sign says in bold letters, "North Loop," then right under that, "The Guy Fleming Trail." I've done this many times since the 1960s. This was one of the better and easiest trails to hike and actually get inside of the Torrey Pine forest. Most other trails are broken up with chaparral, but this is forest. Other areas of dense Torrey Pine forest you can only see from a viewpoint distance to protect them. It's also not especially steep or challenging and it takes you right next to the viewpoint of Torrey Pines State Beach overlook. Interestingly the woods at the end of the trail are like the stunted growth of common chaparral we call, "Elfin Forest," because they are windswept by the ocean breezes which have sculpted them this way. Often the signage will comment on the grotesque and/or picturesque shapes and explain the natural phenomena of the windy salty air that created these shapes. But something's changed here as well. As you continue to on ahead walking down a little further in the photo above, you can see in the distance that something has gone terribly wrong here too. 
