Greetings, guys, gals, and non-binary pals!
Over the years, people have asked why I’ve studied botany. Why do I care what happens in a forest half a world away? Usually, the same people follow this with the assertion that yes, climate change is real, but it’s up to the big corporations to reverse it because they’re the initial cause.
While I don’t disagree that the insanely high carbon footprint by big business is a significant contributor to the ongoing climate crisis, I’m not starry-eyed enough to believe that companies will change manufacturing and environmental policies without financial pressures. Likewise, it is not only corporations that play a role in this.
I started my botanical journey very early. You almost have to when you’re allergic to dairy, in a culture that values cheese as much as mid-90s America did. Likewise, my dad has been an outspoken supporter of the Amazon and the autonomy of indigenous communities. Consequently, my nuclear family has been vegetarian-ish since I was 5 years old.
I’ve gone into detail regarding Fern Gully and the Amazon in other posts. This shift toward plants was concurrent.
On a scientific level, whether consumed directly or indirectly, much of the Earth’s living biomass relies on the sun for nutrients. Though there are some exceptions, as with everything, the majority of plants rely on the sun to produce nutrients for themselves. Furthermore, plants are then consumed by other organisms, be they tiny microbes, a colony of leaf-cutter ants, or a heard of elephants. These creatures are then in turn consumed by other organisms. This is the life cycle, here on our beautiful planet. Birth, life, death, the reorganization of atoms and cells, repeat et al.
This brings me back to my original point. “Why is botany important?” they ask. Why do you care? Why should I? They’re just plants. There’s plants everywhere. The bugs can just move to something else. It’s fine.
Let us discuss the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) for a moment. The species has evolved with its environment to have an extremely limited diet and as such literally depends on those specific food plants for survival. In this case, that means milkweed species, as that, as mentioned before, is the monarch’s food source, nursery, and often chrysalis safe space. If these plants are gone, the monarch’s entire life cycle is at best disrupted, but more likely completely destroyed. If this happens, the surrounding ecosystem is likewise altered significantly. That cycle occurs each time there is habitat loss and the resident species are unable to mitigate the loss and adapt to their new surroundings.
The same observations can be applied to most, if not all specialized species. Let us, for example, discuss the Hummingbird, from the family Trochilidae. While the Hummingbird and the Bullfinch, which includes species from both the Fringillidae and Emberizidae families, are both birds, their dietary and nesting requirements are very different. Just as certain insects are uniquely suited to particular foodstuffs, while the Hummingbird lacks a strong jaw and drinks the nectar of certain species often bearing trumpet-shaped flowers, the Bullfinch prefers the flowers and fruit of fruit trees, though sunflower hearts or seeds are likewise palatable to them.
Each species has its own, unique place in the fabric of an ecosystem. Each ecosystem has its place within the fabric of our planet. Humans are not excluded from that. The nature isn’t “over there” where we human folk can admire it and enter or exit it when desired. It is all around us. We are literally part of nature and the planet’s expression of itself. Were conditions not just so, human life would not exist.
As we have discussed previously with campaigns like Team Trees (which has raised $21,737,648 to plant trees), and has been demonstrated numerous times in the last few decades, the botanical landscape plays a significant role in climate, as well as general ecology. Well-established trees pull carbon from the air to reinforce their own physical structures by building wood. This is a definite positive, though only a starting point. Trees can absorb carbon from the air to build their trunks, shelter younger, smaller, and often more delicate plants on the forest floor, secure soil from eroding with their roots, and provide extensive habitat for arboreal species of mammals, insects, birds, marsupials, amphibians, and arachnids that call the forest canopy home. There are many variants of forest, too, each uniquely suited and evolved to its particular locale.
Coming back to the original query: “Why botany?” Why is it important? Our planet’s inherent interconnectedness dictates that there is a fundamental relationship between different ecosystems and their inhabitants. Regardless of whether someone approaches this from the standpoint of an individual human needing food, a nature guide seeing food wrappers at an abandoned campsite, an ecologist studying the ecosystem, a horticulturist planning out the care and maintenance of a native plant garden, or any other permutation, all life is connected. All species have responses to the same sun, moon, water, and air. The response can be wildly different, depending on the species and location, and conditions, but all have a response.
Take care of yourself, your ecosystem, and your fellow humans, when possible.
Till next time,
Kate
Sources:
“Extracting carbon dioxide from the air is possible. But at what cost?” The Economist, June 7, 2018: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/06/07/extracting-carbon-dioxide-from-the-air-is-possible-but-at-what-cost
“Bullfinch (Bird)”, Encyclopedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/animal/bullfinch
TeamTrees: https://teamtrees.org/