Herring Spawning

One of the great spectacles in North American wildlife watching is the Pacific herring spawning. It happens every year in late winter and early spring. Not only does the event produce the next generation of an important fish species, it also sustains the current generation of many other animals.

Pacific herring form an important strand in the food web. They are classified as forage fish, meaning they serve as meals for larger fish like salmon. As we'll see a little later, herrings feed the larger community beyond just the salmon.

Herring spawning turns the sea white (Prince William Sound Conservation Center) 

Herring move to shallower seas during spring, which happens to be right around the same time hungry humpback whales arrive from the tropics. The herring are looking for eelgrass or kelp beds for their sticky eggs to attach to. After the females lay their eggs over the vegetation, the males swim over and release their milt to fertilize the eggs.

Before reaching the spawning beds, the herring must navigate a maze of predators: sea lions, sea birds like cormorants and gulls, bald eagles, and those hungry, hungry humpbacks. Once the work is done, the eggs aren't safe and the smorgasbord continues as diving ducks pick them off. About two weeks later, the remaining eggs hatch and the herring larvae are carried by the tide and are subject to predation by fish of all shapes and sizes.

Herring eggs attached to kelp (US Geologic Survey)

With all that eating going on, it's a wonder any herring survive to adulthood. Females typically lay 20,000 eggs a year, and if she lives a long life, she'll do this three times. Multiply her by a million of her closest friends, and you have about 20 billion eggs. If only 1% hatch, that's 200 million baby herring.

Sea lions await their feast (Tillamook Coast)

In a good year, spawning herring will color the sea white. However, the spawning isn't nearly as good as it used to be. Overfishing is one reason, but loss of habitat (spawning and feeding areas) and pollution are also big contributors.
This week's information comes from Wayne Hoffman, Ph.D. and Washington Department of Natural Resources.
nm1: Prince William Sound Conservation Center https://pwssc.org/herring-spawn/
nm2: USGS https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/pacific-herring-eggs-macrophytes
nm3: Wayne Hoffman https://tillamookcoast.com/blog/spawning-of-pacific-herring/

Keystone Species

Ever come home at the end of a long week at work, wondering how the place could function without you? It might feel like you’re the only one holding it all together, like a keystone. This week we’ll take a look at the keystone that holds an ecosystem together- keystone species. Without the keystone species, the ecosystem would collapse, or at least be severely altered.

Examples of keystone species are the gray wolf, limber pine, and sea otters. We’ll take a quick return trip to the lava fields of Idaho, then the kelp forests of the Pacific coast to see how limber pines and sea otters are the keystones of their neighborhoods. We learned about the gray wolf and the good work they do at Yellowstone back in September here.

The limber pine is one of the few trees I saw growing at Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Back in September I spotlighted Craters of the Moon in “Volcanic Idaho”. In that blog post, I mentioned the diverse ecosystem found there. Much of it centers around the limber pine. Limber pine is a pioneer, one of the first to colonize an area following a disturbance, such as a volcanic eruption in Idaho. Its seeds, needles, and sap feed a multitude of mammals, insects, and birds. Without the limber pine, those critters would have to live elsewhere in Idaho, maybe even Utah or Wyoming.

Limber pine at Craters of the Moon

Off the Pacific coast, one of the most important marine habitats is the kelp forest. The kelp hosts many species of fish, somewhat resembling a coral reef (sans coral, of course). The kelp also absorbs storm surge and carbon dioxide. However, kelp tastes delicious, at least according to sea urchins. Lucky for the kelp, sea otters think sea urchins are delicious. Without the otters keeping the urchins in check, the kelp forest becomes an undersea clear cut. Local biodiversity plummets.

River otters (Marine Mammal Commission)

Kelp forest with and without sea otters (Sea Otters.com)

This week's information comes from Great Ecology's blog on limber pines and Sea Otters.com

This is a Crappy Subject

Now for the dirtier side of nature. Pretty much every living thing on this planet exists to be someone else’s meal. If you’re unlucky enough to become lunch, the next step is you become poop. No one likes to talk about it, look at it, or smell it. Even though it’s gross, it’s an essential element of the environment for a couple of reasons.

Raccoon scat

The most important function of poop, or scat as we call it in the science world, is a key role in the nutrient cycle. Every living thing needs an assortment of minerals in order to function properly. Minerals are absorbed from the soil by plants, then absorbed by herbivores that eat those plants, then absorbed by various levels of carnivores up through the food chain. Some minerals are present in the ground in rocks; others are returned to the soil through decaying organic matter (plant or animal) or through scat.

Nutrient cycle (from Exploring Nature.org)

Another important impact scat has on the environment is negative, and it goes beyond getting on your shoe. Nitrates and phosphates are common in scat, and also happen to be active ingredients in fertilizer. Excessive nitrates and phosphates in storm runoff causes high nutrient levels in lakes, streams, and even the ocean. Those high levels can cause an overgrowth of algae. Too much algae, even though it produces oxygen, can cause dead zones of little to no oxygen when the algae dies and decomposers feasting on it suck all the oxygen out of the water.

Algae bloom (Michigan Radio)

A third way scat is important is as a research tool. It allows people like myself who rarely observe animals in the wild to see what animals have been down the trail before. DNA samples can be pulled from scat, and population biologists can estimate population by counting turds. Ecologists can study an animal’s dietary habits from looking at scat.

The coyote that dropped this deuce ate a bird

Deer scat

Now that you’ve seen the usefulness of animal scats, maybe you will look at it in a whole new light on your next foray into the woods. Like anything else in nature (except maybe spiders), if you can overcome your aversion, you can learn to appreciate it.

Nature Minute Road Trip- Wolves of Yellowstone

Predators are an essential part of a healthy ecosystem. Owls and snakes might be patrolling your neighborhood, keeping the rodent population in check and out of your house. Birds and bats target pest insects. Top-level predators, the large killing machines, are equally important but have suffered from human ignorance. To demonstrate the importance of top-level predators, enjoy the story of the gray wolf and how its return impacted life in and around Yellowstone National Park. This is the first story from the Nature Minute Road Trip. 

Wolves were extirpated (made locally extinct) from Yellowstone in the 1930s. They were a menace to neighboring ranches’ livestock and preying on the park’s more charismatic wildlife like bison and elk. Mind you, this took place before the National Park Service placed much emphasis on the “preservation” part of its mission and focused more on the “enjoyment” part. This was a time of public bear feedings.

Gray wolf (in captivity)

By the time 1995 came around, the elk population had gotten out of hand. After much deliberation, a wolf pack from Canada was transported to Yellowstone. The wolves were carefully selected to ensure that their preferred prey was elk, since that was the target species for culling. Yes, different wolves prefer different prey, but they will switch depending on availability.

Elk

The wolves were placed in kennels to quarantine them and let them acclimate to their new surroundings before being released into the wild. Contact with rangers and biologists was limited so they wouldn’t get used to being around people. After release, the fun began.

With large predators on the loose again, the elk had to adapt. They began spending less time in open areas. Lower elk numbers combined with elk lifestyle changes led to young trees growing. Previously, the elk had eaten nearly all new trees before they had a chance to reach maturity. With new trees like willows growing in the river bottoms, beavers began migrating back to Yellowstone. The new trees, even newer beaver ponds, and lower coyote populations (out competed for food by the larger wolves) brought in a host of birds and small mammals that had left. With the birds came smaller predators like foxes and hawks. 

Wolf being released at Yellowstone (NPS photo)

The leftovers from wolf kills attracted more corvids (ravens, crows, and magpies) and benefited eagles (bald and golden) as well as bears (black and grizzly). The absence of elk in the river bottoms and the emergence of trees there changed the course of rivers by stabilizing the banks. This was a two-fold move. The elk were eroding the banks with their constant trampling and the trees added stability by holding soils and rocks in place.

The wolf reintroduction was not without its critics, people we will call lupophobes for their fear of the wolf. People to this day still deny that the wolf reintroduction has done any benefit for the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Science hasn’t proven that all these changes are caused directly by the wolf’s presence, but it does prove that the benefits took place after. You decide. I'd been to Yellowstone before the return of the wolf, but I barely remembered any of it, let alone enough to do a before and after comparison.

This week's wolf information and picture come from the National Park Service.

Keep Bugging Me

Plants are important to life on Earth. They put oxygen in the atmosphere as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Everyone has to eat, and plants for the base of the food chain. Just as important, and either overlooked or swatted aside, are insects. I consider insects to be the second lowest man on the food chain totem pole as they are super abundant and are the prey of choice for many of the first order predators. In addition, many of them support plant life by serving as pollinators. Others are beneficial because they eat other insects that are crop pests. 

Hoverfly working hard to pollinate

Fritillary butterfly pollinating

I never saw this little pollinator before today

Insect larvae, such as fly maggots or aquatic larva such as mayfly and caddisfly larva, play an important role in the nutrient cycle, breaking down dead plant and animal matter and cycling it into the soil for plants or cycle it even higher in the food chain by being eaten by something bigger than a plant.

Aquatic insect larvae are important indicators of ecosystem health. The absence or presence of certain bugs in the water can tell researchers a lot about water quality. Data collected from stream bug surveys can be used in habitat restoration and conservation projects. 

Caddisfly larvae, an important salmon food

Water strider- fish food

Insects are a great teaching tool. When my daughter was little, insects were her introduction to nature. They are lightweight, portable, easy to catch, and almost everywhere so there was always an opportunity to teach her something new. 

A ladybug, one of my daughter's favorites when she was little

Many of the birds we enjoy seeing or hearing eat insects. Salmon are commercially important fish species that depend on insects and/or insect larva in their early stages of life. The flowers in your garden, not to mention many crops, are there because of insects. Next time you eat an apple, smell a rose, or hear your favorite bird hug a bug! 

Unknown tiny insect that landed on my shirt one day

Bee on its 10 minute break

Praying mantis or preying mantis?

Marsh Madness

One of the most important habitats is wetlands, where the only buzzer-beater you’re likely to find here is when you swat at a mosquito or fly. Among the most productive of all ecosystems, wetlands provide food, water, and shelter for a dazzling array wildlife. Additionally, wetlands benefit people too. Besides recreational opportunities, wetlands provide flood control and water filtration. Not only are there freshwater and saltwater wetlands, but different varieties of each.  

Salt marshes are wetlands that flood with salt water at high tide. Obviously, they are found in coastal areas. They are a common feature in estuaries, areas where salt water mingles with fresh water. They are important habitat for seafood, including salmon, shrimp, and crab. The food our food eats is what draws them there (and the young salmon acclimate to the salt water), but they draw the critters that eat them. Salt marshes are important habitat for resident and migrating shore birds.

Saltwater marsh, Puget Sound

Saltwater marsh, Puget Sound

Freshwater wetlands are more varied. They include bogs, swamps, fens, and seasonal wetlands. Even shallow ponds are considered wetlands. The pond where I conduct my amphibian egg survey is considered wetlands.

Shallow pond freshwater wetland

Freshwater wetlands perform the important ecosystem services of flood control and water filtration. Wetlands do this by impounding rainwater and slowly releasing it downstream or absorbing it into the soil. They filter water by allowing sediments and pollutants settle out. Low water velocity lacks the necessary energy to carry those particles.

Like their salty counterparts, freshwater wetlands host a diverse community. In my pond, I have found two species of salamanders; three species of eggs; one species each of fish, freshwater shrimp, and snake; a river otter; insects galore; and birds too numerous to count. I have also seen deer and elk, coyote, and raccoon tracks and scats near the pond. I have no doubt that these critters are drinking from the pond.

Wet meadow wetland, Mount Rainier National Park

Just this morning I found myself in wetlands once again. This time the focus was on remove protective plastic tubes from trees that were planted three years ago. This site is in Washington’s Ohop Valley. The wetlands are seasonal freshwater, and since this is the rainy season the lands were wet. I didn’t notice much wildlife since I was looking down, but I did happen to see a ton of spiders and elk tracks and scats. The trees are important because they will shade out the invasive reed canary grass (which is swallowing everything) and cool the water temperature in the stream for the salmon. Water tolerant species such as willows were the most common tree I saw, and there were some others I didn’t recognize without leaves in the higher and drier areas.

Next time you drive past a soggy area, don’t be repulsed. Thank a wetland for your seafood and drinking water. Give a hoot and help protect our wetlands! Salt march information comes from our friends at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, while Washington State Department of Ecology provided information on freshwater wetlands ecosystem services.

NOAA (salt marshes)

WA Ecology (water filtration)      

Urban Ecology

When most people think of nature, they think of pristine wilderness or a patch of woods somewhere in the country. But nature is all around us, even in cities and towns. Large chunks of the natural world often go unnoticed simply because they are so familiar as to become invisible. This week Nature Minute introduces you to the wonderful world of urban ecology. For ecology purposes, "urban" refers to any developed area, not just inner cities.

            Most of the wild mammals you meet in our neighborhoods are considered a nuisance. Raccoons are infamous scavengers that thrive on garbage can buffets, while mice and rats make our homes their own.  Even charismatic animals like deer (eating our gardens and crashing our cars) and bears (raiding or trash cans and generally being scary) are a nuisance when they leave “the wild” and come into our communities.

Black-tailed deer in my back yard

            Then there are the animals you don’t meet. Crows and pigeons are all over the place yet we overlook them because they are so common. Coyotes have adjusted to our cities and towns, yet remain under the radar, earning them the name “ghost dogs”. I see their scats all the time, but I’ve only seen three coyotes in ten years.

            Squirrels, chipmunks, and many species of songbird live in our yards, but they live so close to our homes many people don’t even consider them when thinking of examples of wildlife. They may be used to being around people but they certainly aren’t tame.

Eastern gray squirrel outside my apartment

            Insects and plants also fall into the realm of the wild, though very few people would ever call a beetle, worm, or shrub wildlife. However, these organisms are the base of the food chain and in the absence of garbage, sustain the larger critters that share our neighborhoods.

Baby barn swallows nesting in a hole in wall of my house

            How can you make our urban areas more hospitable to wildlife? The National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat program is one way to start making a difference. Turn your yard into habitat by providing food, water, shelter, places to raise young, and using sustainable practices. In many areas, habitat is severely fragmented, and by turning your yard into a habitat island you can help wildlife move from place to place. Learn more at www.nfw.org or by asking me!

A Day at the Beach, Nature Style

It’s Labor Day weekend and the unofficial end of summer, so let’s take a trip to the beach and check out the tide pools. Growing up in Pennsylvania, my only marine biology experience was seagulls and jelly fish at the sandy beaches of the Jersey Shore. Moving to Washington opened up a whole new dimension of ocean life for me.

Washington has rocky beaches in some areas and sandy beaches in others. The best sandy beaches have large rocky outcroppings called sea stacks. At low tide, the rocks reveal their living treasures. I also had my first seal encounter, but unfortunately this harbor seal was a carcass.

Sea Stacks

My best tide pool walk was at Olympic National Park’s Ruby Beach. I just happened to time it with the super low tide that comes with a full moon and summer solstice. Instead of just the usual starfish and anemones, we were also treated to sponges, chitons, and even a shrimp. Higher rocks had an assortment of mussels, barnacles, and snails. Snails prey on barnacles, and I managed to witness this segment of the circle of life.

Giant green anemones

Ochre Sea Stars

Chiton

Barnacle (white) and Mussels (black)

Snail eating barnacle

Dash Point State Park’s sandy beach has a nice batch of sand dollars. These are living critters, not just fancy shells in a store. Live sand dollars are fuzzy and should be left alone. Only pick up the bleached white ones.

The tide pools of a rocky beach, such as Larabee State Park, are different. There, I encountered pools of standing ocean water teeming with life, rather than exposed to the elements like at Ruby Beach. Larabee gave up crabs, limpets, sea cucumbers, starfish, and anemones. 

Crab and limpets

Sea Cucumber

There was even a pig at the beach last time I was there. Apparently Washingtonians take their livestock to the beach. I came across a chicken with its human at Shilshole Beach in Seattle.

Pig at the beach

Chicken getting ready to hit the beach

The Hidden Community (Part 2 of 2)

Have a look at your lawn. Under the immaculate grass is an invisible world, the soil community. Your yard, like millions of others, is home to an amazing assortment of critters. Most of them you will never see. They range in size from microscopic bacteria and fungi to macroscopic moles and gophers. Each plays its own important role in maintaining ecological balance.

Many soil organisms play a key role in several mineral cycles, including the carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle. I don’t want to say any one organism is more important than any other because they are all cogs on the same great wheel of life, but if I had to I would assign that title to nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These little guys have a symbiotic relationship with plants that allows plants to absorb nitrogen, which is critical to their growth and development. And we all know plants are critical for everything else that’s alive.

Decomposers such as fungi and bacteria consume dead plant and animal material. In doing so, they return carbon and other nutrients that had been locked up in dead material to the soil where it is absorbed by plants and becomes life again.

Below is a chart of a simplified soil food web.

Other soil organisms like earthworms and moles aerate the soil with their tunnels. The tunnels allow for easier movement by air and water, benefiting plants and animals alike. Moles might be ruining your perfect lawn by making look not so nice, but they are actually making it healthier by doing some free landscape work.

Again, information is courtesy of my soil science textbook Soil Science and Management by Edward Plaster.

Did you know? Mushrooms are actually the fruiting bodies of fungi. The “body” of a fungus is actually a collection of long, thread-like cells that can be very compact or quite large. (Thanks to University of California Museum of Paleontology, http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fungi/fungimm.html)

The largest organism in the world is in fact a fungus. It lives in Oregon and is estimated at 1900 to 8650 years old. It covers 2385 acres in Malheur National Forest of eastern Oregon and is known as the Humongous Fungus. (US Forest Service, http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsbdev3_033146.pdf)