Ethnography and Human Health Pioneers

I'm interested in people who have traveled the world, learning from the diversity of human adaptations and health responses.

Esther Gokhale

Weston A. Price

Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic

Logging to Save a Forest from Climate Change

A good article about logging in the forest where I did my graduate research in northern Michigan.  Researchers are using funding from a timber contract with Louisiana-Pacific to cut the aspen trees on part of the experimental forest.  They will study the soil and water impacts of cutting the trees, as well as looking at species composition changes.

In the article, a researcher is quoted as saying that it would be irresponsible not to cut the trees because of climate change.  "Aspen in the Great Lakes region are considered “climate change losers,” according to Nave, and are not expected to fare well as the region’s climate continues to warm in the coming decades."

"The high-emissions scenario projects an 11.2-degree Fahrenheit summer temperature increase in the assessment area by the end of the 21st century. At the same time, summer precipitation is projected to decline by 3.8 inches under that scenario. "

"It will take a decade or more to know which of the aspen-management treatments was most effective, Nave said. It is expected that future generations of Biological Station researchers and students will carry on with the work, he said."

Glyphosate Fear-Mongering

Despite recent court cases, glyphosate is not recognized as a carcinogen or toxin as these terms are normally understood in environmental toxicology.  Yes, there is some research linking glyphosate with increased cancer risk, but that is not the scientific consensus.

I don't think this blog post on glyphosate can be counted as scientifically accurate, even though it does cite scientific research. Websites that sell fear based on a few studies while ignoring the body of scientific literature are not reliable sources for decision-making. 

I am writing as a concerned science-lover. For me (and I could be wrong), I see glyphosate fear-mongering as no different from conspiracy theories about vaccine harms or global warming.  Yes, there are scientific papers showing that vaccines cause autism and that global warming is not happening, but any article that only cites those papers without weighing (or at least mentioning!) the current scientific consensus would be misleading at best.

Focusing on glyphosate seems especially misguided given the other chemicals used in agriculture and commonly found in our food supply (e.g. chlorpyrifos).  While glyphosate may be the popular boogeyman of the year, science-based reporting should at least acknowledge that it is probably the least toxic of any chemical pesticides currently being used. 

A better approach than just selling fear:  promote solutions, such as better testing of all chemicals in our food supply. 

Plant Interactions Versus Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM)

Questions:  does existing vegetation help or hurt the IVM goal of creating a self-sustaining, compatible plant community?  Do some compatible species tend to facilitate or inhibit the establishment and growth of incompatible species? And do these plant interactions vary systematically across ecosystems?

These questions fall into the domain of “Community Ecology”.  This looks like a good review paper but I don’t have access to it.  Ecology is notoriously unsystematic, so (without reading the review) I bet the answer is “Its complicated” and “It depends.”

Here are some papers I was able to access:

Paper: The role of plant interactions in the restoration of degraded ecosystems: a meta‐analysis across life‐forms and ecosystems

Link: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2009.01573.x

Relevant Conclusions:  Inhibition predominates in herbaceous communities typical of early‐successional stages, whereas facilitation prevails in communities dominated by shrubs and trees.

My Comment: IVM that leaves shrubs (like in Sonoran desert) would probably not create inhibition for tree growth, whereas IVM that leaves grasses (like Ponderosa habitats) would be expected to inhibit tree growth.

Paper: Is the change of plant–plant interactions with abiotic stress predictable? A meta‐analysis of field results in arid environments

Link: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2005.01017.x

Relevant Conclusions:  Density data showed that the net effect of plant neighbours was positive at low abiotic stress and negative at high abiotic stress levels.  However, none of our meta‐analyses indicated that the magnitude of the net effect provided by plant neighbours, whether positive or negative, was higher under high abiotic stress conditions, and facilitation does not therefore appear to increase in importance with abiotic stress.

My Comment: Results are mixed, but in general deserts do not show more importance of “nurse plant” facilitation.