ECOSYSTEMS, GAIA & DAISYWORLD

Queen of the Sun: What the Bees Are Telling Us

• The website for the documentary film: http://www.queenofthesun.com

• Wikipedia entry for the film: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_Sun

Daisyworld

• Wikipedia entry for this concept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisyworld

• Youtube clip from NASA about Daisyworld:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkf0vPrN90U

What if, instead of dark daisies, we talked about dark tornadoes and atmospheric phenomna?

• Youtube clip showing baby tornadoes or 'dust devils': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjr3KgVJ04 

• Article on The Verge about tornado prediction: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/23/4358728/the-science-of-tornado-prediction-moore-oklahoma

Related links:

• How does weather radar work? Clip from the National Weather Service: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3x2kDfaatXQ

• What is a 'debris ball'? http://fox41blogs.typepad.com/wdrb_weather/2012/03/learning-about-weather-radar-the-debris-ball.html

• Footage of the recent massive Oklahoma tornado: http://petapixel.com/2013/05/22/man-sticks-his-camera-out-storm-shelter-hole-captures-view-of-tornado-up-close/

A few in-progress related thoughts:

Geothermal vents, volcanoes and tornadoes are all obvious contenders for 'black daisies' while white cloud (water vapor), snow (water vapor frozen into crystals) and big white mushroom trees growing in the midland valleys are good contenders for 'white daisies'. The brine that accumulates over the ocean and in the lowlands could be sort of a grey-white 'daisy', a border zone. The ocean could be dark in color, functioning as a black daisy for the most part.

Maybe black daisies stick together to some degree, so vents and volcanoes create tornado conditions (once some temperature/moisture conditions are met, the next step is to have unstable atmospheric conditions, maybe a column of warm air, and some wind shear) and the areas around this tornado breeding ground are attractive to black fly/locust swarms, creatures dark in color who seek out the warmth of dark locations.

Perahps some distance away from vent/tornado territory but downstream where the skies are still partly gloomy, all the plankton and nutrients released in tornado territory get out from a dark cloud and there are grasslands leading to forests, where dark grey grazing sky whales move across the grasslands and forests feeding on the plankton... as a byproduct of this feeding process, other nutrients and small creatures are kicked up into the air, which are in turn eaten by a flock of white birds who follow the grazing sky whale like minnos following a whale shark. 

Similarly, white daisies could flock together. Big white mushroom trees growing in relatively sunny meadows keep things cool and breezy, which attracts various types of light colored bird and light colored land animals.

Maybe we'll end up with 'red daisies' too, to soak up whatever bounced radiation from the pink/red gas giant. Maybe these red daisies only appear 'at night' when the main sun lightsource is gone and the reflected light of the giant illuminates everything with a pink-ish half light.

 

Gaia Hypothesis

• Wikipedia entry for this concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis

• BBC clip about James Lovelock and Gaia, Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl-OfHFLwWU

• BBC clip about James Lovelock and Gaia, Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-v5UGK9Ajc

Bits and pieces from scientist James Lovelock and others, lifted from the BBC clips:

From Part 2:

"Nearly all scientists these days are slaves."

From Part 4:

"There's no morality about it. If the earth improves as a result of our presence, then we'll flourish. If it doesn't then we'll die off."

"I fear that not many of us will survive."

"Now... how they will die? It'll be starvation, by war, by disease. Who knows. The four horsemen, really, ride when conditions like that happen."

"I still think there's a lot to play for, but we will still see the face of the earth change."

"This isn't an easy subject, is it? People say to me, well you can say that kind of thing easily, because at your age it's not going to affect you anyways, you'll be dead before it all happens. And that's true...."

"...But I do have great grandchildren. And it's progeny that's the name of the game here."

The Gaia concept occurred to Lovelock while he was working with Carl Sagan at NASA, as they tried to work out how to scan Mars for lifeforms, and Lovelock realized that lifeforms could be detected by studying the atmosphere of Mars. 

KAMIKAZE BROADCASTERS

• Wikipedia entry for this concept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis

From the wiki:

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is a parasitoidal fungus that infects ants such as Camponotus leonardi and alters their behavior. The ant falls from the tree where it normally lives, climbs on the stem of a plant, clamps its mandibles on a leaf and dies there, while the fungus consumes its tissues and grows outside it, releasing its spores. The infected ants are popularly known as zombie ants.This is a prime example of a parasitoid that alters the behavior of its host in order to ensure its own reproduction. Possessed ants march to their death and the fungus lives inside the exoskeleton.

The species can be identified at the end of its lifecycle by its reproductive structure, consisting of a wiry yet pliant darkly pigmented stroma stalk extending from the back of the deceased ant's head. The stalk has perithecia just below its tip. The fungus infects ants, most known as the carpenter ants, in which the fungus creates a single stalk arising form the dorsal neck region on which the sexual structures are borne horizontally, which creates the spores. Once infected with the fungus the ant will climb down from its normal habitat and bite down on the underside of a leaf. This is known as "the death grip" occurring in very precise locations.

Like other fungi pathogenic to insects in the Ophiocordyceps genus, O. unilateralis targets a specific host species, the Camponotus leonardi ant. However the fungus may parasitize other closely related species of ants with lesser degrees of host manipulation and reproductive success.

The fungus's spores enter the body of the insect likely through the cuticle by enzymatic activity, where they begin to consume the non-vital soft tissues. Yeast stages of the fungus spread in the ant's body and presumably produce compounds that affect the ant's brain and change its behaviour by unknown mechanisms. The insect climbs up the stem of a plant and uses its mandibles to secure itself to a leaf vein, with abnormal force, leaving dumbbell-shaped marks on it. A search through plant fossil databases revealed similar marks on a fossil leaf from the Messel pit which is 48 million years old.

The fungus then kills the ant, and continues to grow as its hyphae invade more soft tissues and structurally fortify the ant's exoskeleton. More mycelia then sprout out of the ant, and securely anchor it to the plant substrate while secreting antimicrobials to ward off competition. When the fungus is ready to reproduce, its fruiting bodies grow from the ant's head and rupture, releasing the spores. This process takes 4 to 10 days.

The changes in the behavior of the infected ants are very specific, giving rise to the popular term "zombie ants", and tuned for the benefit of the fungus. The ants suffer from convulsions causing them to fall to the ground and preventing them from finding their way back to their canopy. The ants generally clamp to a leaf's vein about 25 cm above the ground, on the northern side of the plant, in an environment with 94-95% humidity and temperatures between 20 and 30 °C. According to David Hughes, "You can find whole graveyards with 20 or 30 ants in a square metre. This fungus has been known to wipe out whole colonies of ants. Each time, they are on leaves that are a particular height off the ground and they have bitten into the main vein [of a leaf] before dying". When the dead ants are moved to other places and positions, further vegetative growth and sporulation either fails to occur or results in undersized and abnormal reproductive structures.

CONSTANT GARDENERS

• Wikipedia entry for this concept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudomyrmex_ferruginea

From the wiki:

The acacia ant (Pseudomyrmex ferruginea) is a species of ant of the genus Pseudomyrmex. These arboreal, wasp-like ants have an orange-brown body around 3 cm in length and very large eyes. The acacia ant is best known and named for living in symbiosis with the Bull's-horn Acacia throughout Central America. The ant and the acacia exemplify a coevolution of a mutualistic system, as described by evolutionary ecologist Daniel Janzen.

P. ferruginea is an obligate plant ant that occupies at least five species of acacia. Its life cycle conforms to the claustral pattern of ants in general.

To repel herbivorous animals, various acacias protect their succulent leaves with one of several methods, including vicious-looking spines, repellent, noxious chemicals, and —as in the case of the bull's horn acacia— by developing a mutualism with the Acacia ant.

The symbiotic relationship begins when a newly mated queen gets attracted by the odour from the tree and starts nesting inside the large hollow acacia thorns. The queen nibbles into the thorn to lay 15-20 eggs to produce the first generation of workers. As the colony grows, more of the bulbous thorns get inhabited, and when the colony reaches some 400 individuals the ants start to act as gardeners.

As gardeners, the ants aggressively attack creatures of all sizes attracted by the acacia leaves, killing insects such as crickets and stinging the heads of mammals such as goats. Even other plants such as epiphytic vines are repelled and as little as an unfamiliar odour can cause the ants to swarm toward the potential threat. Additionally, the ants scout the ground around the tree for seedlings and destroy any competitors they find. In compensation, special glands at the base of the tree's leaves produce a nectar rich in sugar and amino acids, and the tips of the leaves sprout Beltian bodies, small nutritious packets of oils and proteins. However, not all is mutually beneficial: the ants relish the sweet honeydew produced by scale insects which suck the sap of the acacia and therefore protect them as well, effectively providing entry to diseases.

The development of myrmecophytism ("ant symbiosis") and spininess in African and New World acacia species was an adaptation to the presence of large faunas of effective browsing mammals. The ants' sting is very painful, causing a lasting burning and throbbing effect. The ants provide vital protection to the bull's-horn acacias day and night, and it has been shown that without the ants, Acacia cornigera suffer greater damage from attacking insects and tend to be overgrown by competing plant species.

Nuptial flight occurs in warm weather at any time of the year. If an acacia thorn has not been opened by a previous occupant, the queen gnaws a circular hole to enter the thorn cavity. She lays 15 to 20 eggs, rears her first brood while remaining secluded inside the thorn. The population of the colony then increases to 150 workers within seven months, to 300 three months later, to 1,100 in two years, and to over 4,000 in three years.

In young colonies workers leave the protective thorns to collect nectar and Beltian bodies, but only as long as necessary. At rare intervals they leave their thorns to occupy new ones. Males and virgin queens are produced during the second year. As the number of ants reach 50-100, workers start patrolling the open plant surface next to their home thorn, and as the population reaches 200-400 workers become more aggressive and attack other smaller nearby colonies, ward off phytophagous insects that make landing attempts near the thorn more effectively.

In old colonies the queen is physogastric (i.e. a swollen, membranous abdomen), heavily attended by workers, and accompanied by hundreds of eggs and young larvae.

The larvae are fed on unaltered fragments of Beltian bodies that are pushed deep into the larva's food pouch (the trophothylax, a pocket just behind the mouth). The larva then starts to rotate its head in and out of the pouch to chew the contents, while ejecting droplets of clear fluid possibly containing digestive enzyme into the pouch.

Fragments that protrude from the pouch are removed by a worker and redistributed. Regularly, workers force open the pouch to regurgitate droplets of fluid into it. The nature of this fluid is uncertain. It is possible captured insects constitute a secondary source of nutrition to the larvae.

MISC LINKS 

"Glow in the dark cockroach and social media butterly  named in scientists top ten new species": http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/23/4358412/scientists-top-ten-new-species 

Earth Observatory "Pavlof Volcano, Alaska Peninsula" volcanic eruption from space photographs: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=81205