Planning the North American Prairie Conference

For the last several months I have been helping to organize the 23rd North American Prairie Conference (NAPC) (click here for conference details) which will be held at the University of Manitoba from August 6-10. This is first time that this conference has been held in western Canada (it is usually held in the mid to western U.S.). I’m looking forward to learning more about prairie conservation and restoration initiatives from other Canadians  as well as our American neighbours. This conference will feature a number of prominent prairie enthusiasts including Canadian authors Sharon Butala and Candace Savage as well as Dr. Wes Jackson from the Land Institute in Kansas and Dr. David Young from the Natural Resources Institute in Winnipeg. Ojibway elder David Daniels will be talking about Canada’s native plants and their traditional use.

Conferences like this provide a great opportunity for professionals to meet and exchange information that will assist with their work. But it is also a chance for people who are just concerned about prairie conservation to learn more about these beautiful and intricate habitats that are now almost gone. Hope to see you there!

On occasion I’ve met people who would ask, in reference to a plant that I was studying, “what good is it?”. I was initially somewhat baffled because I assumed that most people knew that plants are needed for an ecosystem to function properly, and that since ecosystems provide humans with clean water and air, they are important. But sadly many people view species from a complete utilitarian viewpoint, assuming that if you can’t eat it or cut it down to make furniture, it is useless and therefore expendable. One argument for the conservation of all plants is that we simply don’t know which ones may yield chemicals potentially useful to humans. What is considered a useless plant one day could be a life saver on another.

The Pacific Yew tree (Taxus brevifolia) was long considered a “weed” by foresters. In the 1960’s an extract from this species called paclitaxel was found to kill cancer cells. The drug Taxol was approved by the FDA in 1992 and is now a commonly used in the treatment of ovarian and breast cancer.

It was nice to hear that another much maligned plant, namely the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), is also being investigated for its anti-cancer properties (read the CBC article here). An extract from dandelion roots dug out of the lawn by graduate students at the University of Windsor was found to kill leukemia cells but not healthy cells (see details here). I find it very ironic that a plant that people have spent thousands of dollars trying to get rid of (in the process of doing so exposing themselves to potentially cancer-causing toxic chemicals) may actually hold the key to curing a form of cancer: leukemia.

What people may not know is that dandelions have actually been used medicinally in ancient China and in Europe since at least the 11th century for its diurectic and detoxifying properties. Modern herbalists prescribe dandelion root for a variety of ailments. The dried roots are typically harvested, dried, and brewed to make a tea that tastes somewhat like coffee. Dandelion leaves are also edible and very nutritious, being especially high in vitamins A and C. You can collect the young tender leaves and throw them in a salad (just make sure they come from a lawn that hasn’t been doused with herbicides!). The roots and flowers can also be made into alcoholic beverages such as dandelion wine and root beer. Other “weedy” plants that are edible include burdock (Arctium spp.) (its roots are edible) and Lamb’s-Quarters (Chenopodium album) (it’s leaves are very nutritious). Burdock seed heads were actually the inspiration for velcro!

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “a weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered”. It’s time for us to appreciate the virtues of weeds like the dandelion!

Nature preservation is often seen as something that is “nice” for people to do if they can afford to as it really isn’t all that important for the survival of humanity. Increasingly though scientific research is revealing that this attitude is based on an incomplete understanding of how the world works.

For the last several years I have been studying the interactions between insect pollinators and wild plants. I’ve discovered that plants do not depend on just one pollinator; they are pollinated by multiple species of insects. In turn, these pollinating insects depend on a multitude of plant species to help them survive. The end result is an intricate web of interactions, much like a social network, where the health of the entire system depends on the health of each individual species. If any species are lost, the web becomes weakened and less resilient in the face of unusual events, like severe droughts, and climatic changes. Computer models suggest that the loss of species engaging in the most interactions (such as bees) will result in a more rapid cascade of secondary extinctions than species with fewer interactions (1).

Measures that protect nature can also help to save human lives. Pesticides can negatively affect human health; measures that restrict or control their use are therefore of direct benefit to humans (7). Conservation of wetlands can help reduce flooding and improve air and water quality, outcomes that also help protect human health. Our species needs to protect and find ways to work with, not against, natural systems as doing so is ultimately in our own self-interest.

References

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691904/pdf/15615687.pdf
2. http://nature.berkeley.edu/kremenlab/Articles/Value%20of%20Wildland%20Habitat%20for%20Supplying%20Pollination%20Services%20to%20Californian%20Agriculture.pdf
3. http://www.ufz.de/export/data/1/22686_Potts_et_al_2010.pdf
4. http://www.uoguelph.ca/canpolin/Publications/Poll_decline_ENG_MC3-1.pdf
5. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2007.0030-1299.16303.x/abstract
6. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4543402?uid=3739408&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3737720&uid=4&sid=47698832505157
7. http://www.hartfordhospital.org/Portals/1/Images/22/PerinatalSymposium2011/Pesticides%20and%20Health%20Risks.pdf

For the last several years I have been studying the pollination ecology in Birds Hill Provincial Park focusing specifically on the rare Western Silvery Aster (Symphyotrichum sericeum) plant. I discovered that this species is self-incompatible (meaning it can’t fertilize its own eggs), and visited by a wide range of insect pollinators, including both flies and bees.

I also discovered that although this rare plant competes for pollinators with the much more common Showy Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis) plant, a negative effect on seed production only occurs when their blooming periods overlap.

My first thought was that reducing the number of Showy Goldenrod plants in the community would result in more insect visitations for the rare plant but then I reconsidered as this did not intuitively seem like the right course of action. I wondered if removing plants would actually end up reducing the local insect population by reducing the quantity of nectar available. Perhaps the plants aren’t really competing at all but rather working together to support their mutual pollinators throughout the year. I also considered that any plant species that completes its flowering before Western Silvery Aster begins blooming would not be competing with it for pollinators at all. In fact, you could argue that the common plants facilitate insect visitation to the rare plant by providing nectar to their shared pollinators. Purple Prairie Clover provides nectar to Western Silvery Aster’s pollinators in July.

I decided to test this hypothesis by recording the insect visitors to other plant species before Western Silvery Aster even begins to flower. So far I have obtained some interesting results. One of the most important insect visitor species, a bumblebee (Bombus bifarius), was observed visiting five species of plants in June and July in addition to Western Silvery Aster. A second species, a bee fly (Anastoechus barbatus), was observed as early as July 12, pollinating three other plant species. It appears that when plants share pollinators, staggered flowering helps to (a) decrease competition, and (b) sustain pollinating insects throughout their active season.

I think that there is a tendency for western scientists to place too much emphasize on competition when interpreting the results of their research. We need to remember that co-operation, if it results in both species increasing their offspring, is also a beneficial strategy for survival.

For the last two years I have been searching for four species of rare Bugseed (Corispermum spp.) plants. Historically these plants were found in sand dunes and along the beaches of Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba. Unfortunately there were very few recently collected specimens; most had been collected over 40 years ago. Attempts to determine the rarity status of these plants were hampered due to this lack of information.

During my field work I relocated fewer than half of the historical populations of Bugseeds indicating a substantial loss of habitat. In some cases, dune stabilization appears to have resulted in the loss of habitat for these species, which grow in bare sand. Flooding along the Red River and on Lakes Manitoba and Winnipeg in 2010 and 2011 may have also caused the loss of habitat as several historical populations had been previously found on the beaches, dunes and sandbars along the south shore of these lakes. Balancing out the losses a bit was the discovery of seven new localities in the province including a very large population of Hairy Bugseed (C. villosum) in the sand dunes in Grand Beach Provincial Park.

Unfortunately, I could not locate any Pallas Bugseed (C. pallasii) at the three sites where it was historically found although I did find some American Bugseed (C. americanum) at two of the sites. Pallas Bugseed is still present in other Canadian provinces so it is not extirpated in the country. It is possible that this species spread into Manitoba from other provinces where it is native along railways and then subsequently disappeared as more hardy weeds took over the habitat. As the seeds of these species are quite long lived and tolerant of burial, Pallas Bugseed may still be here in the province, hiding in the soil and waiting for the right conditions to germinate.

Today I got to study a plant specimen that had been collected 100 years before I was born in 1872 by one of the most famous Canadian botanists, Dr. John Macoun. Dr. Macoun accompanied the engineer Sanford Fleming to look for a railroad route through the Canadian west and determine the area’s agricultural potential. Macoun collected thousands of plant and animal specimens on his journeys, which involved travelling either by horse or canoe. He collected over 100,000 plants in his lifetime including over 1,000 that were new to science. In total 48 new species were named after him, including Macoun’s buttercup (Ranunuculus macounii).

Touching Macoun’s handwritten label made me wonder what western Canada looked like back then. Just acres and acres of grasses and fragrant wildflowers, and thousands of birds, antelope and deer I imagine. Or maybe it just felt big and empty and utterly overwhelming.

I also mused about the end result of his journeys. Macoun’s report on the fertility of the prairies convinced Canada to send immigrant farmers to this land. How would he have felt knowing that his report paved the way for the almost complete destruction of the grassland that he had wandered on? That plants and animals that had once numbered in the billions would be reduced to mere handfuls less than a century after his arrival? Perhaps it would have made him happy, knowing that the land was settled with European farmers and ranchers. But I suspect that that happiness would be mingled with at least some regret that no one would ever again experience the wild west as he had.

On October 28 a new natural history exhibit on the Colours in Nature will open in the Museum’s Discovery Room. Organisms and minerals representing all the colours of the rainbow will be on display. Unfortunately no flowering plant specimens will be displayed (only photographs) because, unfortunately, most of the plants in our collection represent only one colour: brown. If the exhibit was on the colour brown in nature, boy would I have a lot stuff to show!

The plants weren’t always brown of course. Before they were collected the leaves were bright green and the flowers hot pink, yellow, orange, and purple. Sadly the drying process almost always results in the loss of at least some colour. Age doesn’t help matters either, the older a plant is, the browner it gets.

In some lichens the colour of the green algae inside the fungus shows through, especially when wet. If the lichen dries out, it may look grey or brown. Other lichens produce brightly coloured pigments like the brilliant yellow pulvinic acid or the reddish anthraquinones. Why lichens produce these chemicals is still a bit of a mystery but one of the best hypotheses is that they act as algal sunscreen, protecting the sensitive algae from harmful UV radiation in sunny habitats. For this reason, the brightest lichens in Manitoba can be found on the tundra in the far north as well as on rocks in the grasslands.

So if I’ve piqued your curiosity, come on down to the Museum to see our collection of brightly coloured lichens (and minerals and brightly coloured birds and butterflies too).

A lot of conservation initiatives around the world involve fencing off areas to “protect” the wild species contained within. Although that strategy can work well in ecosystems that are rarely disturbed, like tropical rainforests, it doesn’t work as well in ecosystems that evolved with natural disturbances. North American prairies used to contain migratory herbivores (e.g. bison, antelope) that consumed large quantities of the vegetation. Bison are unique in that they also engaged in extensive wallowing activities, creating permanent bowl-shaped depressions on the landscape. Old journal entries from some of the first European explorers describe bison herds as taking days to pass and leaving huge swaths of trampled and disturbed soil in their wake. Wild fires following drought and lightning strikes were also common. Native annual plants like ragweed, goosefoot, and bugseeds were likely adapted to colonize these disturbed areas.

Although a moderate amount of disturbance is necessary to create the habitat these rare plants need, too much disturbance is a bad thing. I was unable to relocate some of the historical populations of bugseeds because the areas where they had grown in the past were now heavily impacted by humans and our machinery, being dominated by weeds introduced to Canada from Europe and Asia. Clearly, finding the right balance of disturbance, not too much and not too little, is important for the conservation of certain rare plants.

While examining the backlog of uncatalogued plants in my lab I came across a very old and intriguing collection: 28 vascular plants from Ungava, Labrador collected in 1876 by a Mrs. Lizzie Crawford. Immediately my curiosity was aroused. Who was this mysterious woman? Why was she collecting plants in Canada’s north so long ago? How on earth did her specimens end up at the Manitoba Museum? Clearly figuring all this out was going to require some serious detective work.

By examining the collection I was able to come to some conclusions about who Mrs. Crawford was and what she was like. First, she was clearly an educated woman as she was both literate (her penmanship is lovely) and able to correctly identify the scientific (Latin) names of the plants she collected. Second, she had access to natural history books and enough leisure time to engage in a hobby, suggesting that her family was somewhat well-off. Third, she was a nature lover and probably a bit of an adventurer. She described the habitat of one plant as being “amongst moss in swamps” so she was probably willing to hike in inhospitable places in search of interesting plants. I surmised that she was probably from an upper-middle class family and that her presence in Labrador was most likely as a visitor or temporary resident. Although her husband was of Scottish ancestry, she is not necessarily Scottish as her maiden name was not indicated.

Next I needed to know a little bit more about the history of Labrador. What kinds of people were living in northern Labrador in 1876? I began searching history publications for information about Scottish immigrants. I determined that there were three likely professions for Mrs. Crawford’s husband: missionary, merchant, or employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). I decided to explore the HBC archives since a link to this company might explain how the specimens ended up in Manitoba.

So how did the specimens end up at the Manitoba Museum? I needed to track the Crawfords movements after Mr. Crawford retired from the HBC in 1878. Using the internet I was able to find enough documents to piece some of the puzzle together. The Crawfords moved to Indian Head (now part of Saskatchewan) in 1882 to open a general store and Mr. Crawford entered politics, becoming a member of the first council of the Northwest Territories from 1886-1888. During this time the Crawfords may have been involved in the Manitoba Historical and Scientific Society (MHSS), which established in 1879. I suspect that the 28 specimens that I have were given to the MHSS directly by the Crawfords or by their daughter Maggie, eventually ending up here at the Museum. Additional specimens of Mrs. Crawford ended up in herbaria at the University of Montreal and the Canadian Museum of Nature. In fact, Dr. John Macoun (the naturalist with the Geological Survey of Canada), mentioned one of her specimens (Pinguicula vulgaris) in his list of the flora of Labrador in the book “Labrador Coast: A journal of two summer cruises to that region” by A. S. Packard in 1891.

It would be wonderful to find some of Lizzie’s descendants to show them her specimens and also see if they have any old journals, books, letters, or diaries that would tell me more about Lizzie’s collecting activities and why she was interested in natural history. If you are somehow related to Lizzie or Robert Crawford please feel free to get in touch with me as this Museum mystery is still not fully solved.

For the last several weeks I have been recording the pollinators of wild flowers in Birds Hill Provincial Park. One rather windy and uneventful day I was able to reflect on my chosen profession and was forced to conclude that I am a science geek. I remembered an old episode of the Simpsons where Bart discovers a comet. While searching the heavens with Bart, Principal Seymour Skinner says, “There’s nothing more exciting than science! You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention – science has it all!” That pretty much describes what I’ve been doing for the last seven years: sitting quietly, waiting for an insect to land on a flower, and writing down the number of flowers she/he visits. In the winter I identify plants and insects, study the data I collected, make graphs, run statistical analyses, and write scientific papers. The funny part is that I really do find it exciting. It’s fun to find out if the patterns you surmised while in the field were real or indistinguishable from nature’s background noise. Plus, there’s nothing more thrilling than correctly identifying a mysterious species of sedge! Hence my revelation and this confession.

I also take solace in the fact that the specimens and data I collect will probably be studied long after I’m dead.  Not everyone can say that about their life’s work.  So even though I am a science geek, I don’t mind at all.