For many people throughout the eastern United States, the sound of spring peepers is a herald of spring. 

     As soon as the ice has melted on the wetlands, these diminutive forest frogs take up residence at the edge of a pond or vernal pool, in or near a forest.   Well-hidden near the bases of grasses and shrubs, the males take up their mating call in earnest.  Launching their song around dusk, they may well continue their throaty chirps for much of the night.  

     Rarely does one hear a spring peeper peeping alone.  “Under most conditions, but especially during the moist, spring nights that are most conducive to reproduction, a chorus of peepers is heard,” says Jennifer Frick-Ruppert in her book Mountain Nature:  A Seasonal History of the Southern Appalachians.

      After a singing male does find his mate and breeds, the female lays a clutch of eggs, about 900 of them (!), at the water’s edge.  The eggs soon hatch, and during their larval stage, the peepers feed on algae and other water organisms.  Six to eight weeks after hatching, the young frogs are ready to leave the water.  They disperse into underbrush and low trees.

     While they have the large toe pads typical of tree frogs, spring peepers don’t climb high into trees.  Instead, they spend more of their time hunting for food amid low vegetation and in the loose debris of the forest floor.  Spring peepers are nocturnal carnivores.  Their night-time meals include small invertebrates like beetles, ants, flies, and spiders. 

     Although only about an inch long, the spring peeper is hardy.  In the northern parts of its range, it can withstand occasional sub-freezing temperatures during its breeding season.   It can even tolerate the freezing of some of its body fluids!  During the winter, spring peepers may hibernate under logs or inside loose bark on trees.  Typically, a spring peeper lives about three years in the wild. 

     In appearance, most spring peepers are some shade of brown or grey.  They are easily recognizable by the dark X on their backs.  The male’s coloring is usually a little brighter than the female’s, and he is usually a little smaller than she is. 

     There are two sub-species of spring peeper, the northern and the southern.  While the northern is found all over the eastern U.S. and Canada, the southern is limited to north Florida and south Georgia. 

     If you have a half-minute to spare, click here Watch a spring peeper peeping!.  You’ll see the vocal sac’s massive expansion and deflation that makes the frog’s famous ‘peep.’ Spring is here!–April Moore

     Today, March 22, 2011, is World Water Day, designated by the United Nations. 

     What better time to pause to consider the wonder of water, how it sustains us and all of life on our blue planet.  Here are some interesting facts about water to think about today:

• Water covers about 70% of the earth’s surface.  Ours is indeed a watery planet.
• The overall amount of water on our planet has remained the same for about two billion years.
• Water moves around the planet in a water cycle.  The cycle has five parts:  evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, and surface run-off.
• In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about two weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere!
• Groundwater can take a human lifetime just to travel a single mile.
• Water is a key factor in regulating the earth’s temperature. 
• Water is the only substance found naturally on the earth in all three states–solid, liquid, and gas.
• Frozen water is 9% lighter than liquid water, which explains why ice floats on water.
• Of all the water on earth, only 2.5% is fresh water.  Fresh water is either groundwater or more accessible water in lakes, streams, and rivers.
• The deep ocean current moves around the planet in a 1,000 year cycle, enriching nutrient-depleted surface waters by carrying them through deeper layers where nutrients are abundant.

      A few months ago, scientists discovered a ‘new’ frog!  So tiny, only the size of a pea when full-grown, this diminutive creature is the second smallest frog in the world.

     Although specimens of the little creature have been seen in museums for more than 100 years, they had been misidentified as juveniles of other species.  The ‘new’ frog, called Microhyla nepenthicola, was discovered living in and around pitcher plants in a national park on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. 

     How did researchers discover the tiny animal?  “We knew the calls of all frogs in the area,” says Dr. Indraneil Das of the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, “and this was different.”  The researchers tracked the frog by its call which, they explain, was awfully loud for what turned out to be such a little frog.  When Das spotted one of them, “I had to trap the frog in one of my baby son’s clean, white diapers,” he explains, “in order to really see what it looked like, it was so tiny.” 

     In studying the newly discovered frog, scientists have learned that the male Microhyla nepenthicola frogs gather at dusk in and around the pitcher plants and ’sing.’  Their ’song’ is a series of harsh, rasping notes that last for a few minutes, followed by brief intervals of silence.  Scientists have also learned that the females deposit their eggs on the pitcher plants’ sides, and the tadpoles grow in liquid that accumulates inside the plant.

     The pitcher plant that supports the tiny frog is one of many carnivorous pitcher plant species in Borneo.  The pitcher plants where the tiny frogs were discovered were at the edge of a road leading to the summit of a mountain inside Borneo’s Kubah National Park.

     The search that led to the discovery of these minuscule frogs is part of an effort by Conservation International (CI) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  These two organizations are sending teams of scientists to 20 countries on five continents in search of 100 species of ‘lost’ amphibians.  These are amphibians that are considered potentially extinct, but that may be holding on in a few remote places.  Amphibians are a highly threatened group of animals, with about a third of them in danger of extinction.  Scientists hope that this search will help them to understand the recent amphibian extinction crisis.

     Amphibians help maintain healthy freshwater ecosystems, and they help control insects that spread disease and damage crops.  “Amphibians are quite sensitive to changes in their surroundings, so we hope the discovery of these miniature frogs will help us to understand what changes in the gobal environment are having an impact on these fascinating animals,” says CI’s Dr. Robin Moore, who organized the search on behalf of CI’s Amphibian Specialist Group.–April Moore

 

 

Borneo's pitcher plant--Nepenthes ampullaria

     A few days ago, while hiking up the beautiful Buzzard Rock trail with my friend Kathy, she told me of an amazing account she’d heard on National Public Radio on her way to meet me at the trailhead. 

     It turns out that a tiny, transparent crustacean, daintily named Daphnia, has more genes than any animal scientists have ever studied!  About the size of a grain of rice, Daphnia has about 31,000 genes.  Humans, by comparison, have a mere 23,000 genes.  And fully a third of Daphnia’s genes had been completely unknown to science until recently.  I found it astonishing that such a small creature is more genetically complex than a human or an elephant, or any number of larger animals.  I was curious to learn more, so I did a little reading.

     I learned that its exceptional number of genes allow this freshwater crustacean to do some surprising things!  For instance, when threatened by a predator, Daphnia can grow protective armor.  When a lack of oxygen in the environment causes stress, Daphnia’s hemoglobin-making genes switch on.  Although Daphnia usually reproduces clonally, it can reproduce sexually when harsh environmental conditions favor the benefits of sex.

     When asked why such a tiny animal would need so many genes, Dr. John Colbourne, Associate Director of the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics at Indiana University, replied, “It’s hard to say need more genes because that would mean evolution has a goal.  In this case, it’s obviously found a way to use more genes.”

     With its huge number of genes, Daphnia has an unusual ability to respond to changes in its environment.  Its great flexibility of response is a key reason scientists are so interested in the little crustacean.  In fact, Daphnia seems to be a model organism for a new scientific field–environmental genomics–the study of how the environment and genes interact.  Besides, its small size and great abundance make Daphnia a relatively easy subject for scientists to study.

     The new findings about Daphnia are a result of recent research by more than 400 investigators around the world, as part of the Daphnia Genomic Consortium, which was coordinated by Indiana University’s Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics and by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute.–April Moore 

The information for this piece comes from NPR.org, from rdmag.com, and from sciencemag.org.

 

Daphnia--photo by Paul Hebert, University of Guelph

 

    

     I thank my friend Chip for sending me this beautiful and intriguing video.  It shows a herd of all-white deer in northern Wisconsin.  They are beautiful, ethereal-looking animals.   According to the video, they are albino, but I wonder if that is correct. 

     I did a little research and found that a few herds in other locations also include significant numbers of all-white deer.  In these cases, the animals are not albino, but they have a recessive gene that leads to an all-white coat without the pink eyes typical of albinos.  These other herds live in isolated locations where inbreeding has increased the prevalence of the recessive gene and therefore the number of white deer.

     In any event, it is fascinating to view these white deer in the forest.  I hope you’ll take a look.–April Moore 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=inwi10s22a3q81f

     If you share my fascination with crystals, then you’ll want to click on the link below to Dusky’s Wonders Site.  Dusky shows photos of some underground crystals that have grown to gargantuan proportions inside a cave system more than 1,000 feet below the Mexican desert.     

     I did a little research and learned that underground crystals grow larger than the above-ground crystals we’re used to.  The reason:  an underground environment that is conducive to crystal growth is much more likely to remain undisturbed than a comparable above-ground environment.

     Scientists say that the giant crystal obelisks in the photos  began forming  millions of years ago in a cave system where groundwater was saturated in calcium sulphate.  Then magma from much deeper in the earth spread upward and made its way throughout the cave system.  About 600,000 years ago the magma began to cool, and minerals started to precipitate out of the water. 

     Over the centuries, the tiny crystals the minerals formed grew and grew.  Then in 1985, lead miners discovered the fantastic formations when they inadvertently drained the cave with their mine pumps.

     The crystals, some more than 30 feet long, resemble icicles.  In looks only.  The cave’s temperature is 112 degrees F, with 90-100% humidity.  Visitors to the cave must wear protective suits and carry backpacks of ice-cooled air.

     Enjoy the photos!–April Moore

 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/nature/giant-crystals/

“Through the gray and somber wood
Against the dusk of fir and pine
Last of their floral sisterhood
The hazel’s yellow blossoms shine.”
      —from “Hazel Blossoms” by John Greenleaf Whittier, 1874

     On a winter walk in the woods a couple of years ago, I noticed something intriguing.  Certain small, slender trees were dotted with yellow.  And that yellow, striking against the pale winter landscape, had a wild look.  Clusters of little, unruly-looking yellow ’straps’ dotted these trees’ bare branches.

     I learned that the yellow was the bloom of witch hazel, North America’s only tree that wears its flowers, ripe fruit, and next year’s buds on its branches all at the same time.  And that time is winter!  

     Each flower on the witch hazel tree is made of four strap-shaped yellow petals.  The flowers are pollinated by bees and flies.  But since few bees and flies are buzzing about in November and December, the pollination rate is low, and only a small proportion of witch hazel flowers produce mature fruit.  And even though pollination takes place late in the year, fertilization of the ovules does not occur until the following spring.  The fruit then begins to develop, and it is ripe by the following fall or winter, after the witch hazel tree has lost its leaves and the tree’s flowers bloom.

     Witch hazel fruit are two-part capsules, with a single black, glossy seed contained in each part.  During the late fall and winter months, the ripened capsules suddenly burst open with a loud snap.  The seeds are ejected so forcefully that they can be propelled as far as 30 feet from the tree.  Witch hazel seeds are food for grouse, rabbits, beavers, and other animals.  The seeds germinate the following spring. 

     My curiosity about the witch hazel was renewed several weeks ago when I hiked in the Shenandoah National Park with two friends.  We were delighted to spot some witch hazel trees in their full, ragged bloom.  But near the blooming trees, we saw other witch hazel trees that were not flowering.  Where their flowers would have been were instead tiny, flattish, yellow-rimmed circles that were dark in the middle.  We surmised that these compact little forms were flowers not yet opened.  But it seemed strange that such a tight, orderly-looking form could open into something so rangy and disordered-looking as the witch hazel flower.

     The witch hazel tree has a long history of human uses.  Back in the 1840s, writes West Virginia ecologist Elizabeth Byers, an entrepreneur named Theron Pond of Utica, New York, formed a partnership with the Oneida tribe to make and market an astringent lotion from witch hazel bark, which was sold under the name “Pond’s Extract.”  It was the first mass-marketed cosmetic actually made in America, says Byers.   Extracts from the bark and leaves have been used in aftershave lotions and in lotions for treating bruises and insect bites.    

     Early pioneer settlers used green, flexible, witch hazel branches to locate underground water.   The settlers would find a forked branch, strip off its leaves, and walk across their land holding an end of the fork in each hand.  People believed that the branch would point downward where water could be found under the ground.  The practice was called ‘water witching.’ 

     I love the little witch hazel tree.  On my winter walks this year, I am going to keep my ears open for the snapping sound of seeds suddenly popping forth.  And I intend to get ‘up close and personal’ to detect the flowers’ spicy, fragrant smell I’ve read about.–April Moore

 

photo by Carol Gracie

 

 

 

 

       

 

    

     I am posting here a link to a short video that can quite accurately be described as ‘awesome.’  It briefly tells the story of what astronomers saw when they pointed the powerful Hubble telescope at ’nothing.’

     This video offers a different context for thinking about the Earth.  The wonder of our life-filled planet exists within the marvel of billions of stars and galaxies that are  constantly hurtling outward.  Into what?–April Moore 

hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm

       As I look out my window, I see brilliant red leaves of the Virginia Creeper climbing a smoke tree whose leaves are still green.  And the nearby red maple is autumn  in progress.  While most of the maple’s leaves are mainly green, red is making prominent inroads.  The ends of the branches are reddening first, with the very tips the brightest red.  Closer in toward the trunk are a mass of leaves, all somewhere between orange and red.  And closest to the trunk are the greenest leaves.  But their green is now dull, a shadow of the bright green of summer.  And many of these leaves are showing hints of orange and red.  

     Who doesn’t love the reds, oranges, and yellows of fall?  Now that it is late October, and the colors are becoming dramatic, I try to remember what I learned long ago about why leaves from deciduous trees change color before they fall off the trees.  Since I’ve forgotten most of what I learned, I decided to consult a book that I like very much.  It is Mountain Nature:  A Seasonal Natural History of the Southern Appalachians by Jennifer Frick-Ruppert.  While the author, an associate professor of ecology and environmental science at Brevard College in North Carolina, focuses on the swath of mountains that extend from Virginia to Georgia, the processes she describes may be applied to color-changing deciduous trees  everywhere.

     The leaves of deciduous trees are green during most of their short lives (and being green seems pretty easy for them).  The chlorophyll contained in the leaves makes the leaves appear green because they reflect the green portion of the light spectrum, Frick-Ruppert explains.  Leaves contain other pigments as well–orange, yellow, and red, for example.  But those pigments are not visible to our eyes during the spring and summer months because the orange, red, and yellow portions of the light spectrum are absorbed by the leaves.  

     Chlorophyll is vitally important in the life of a tree because it converts light from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air into carbohydrates which the tree needs for nourishment.  Surprisingly to me, sunlight also degrades chlorophyll.  But in the fall, when days are shorter and colder, trees’ production of chlorophyll wanes.  And the chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down.  As chlorophyll disappears from the leaves, the other pigments that were there all along–the reds, yellows, and oranges–then become visible.

     Frick-Ruppert answers a question I have long wondered.  Why are some falls more brilliant than others? 

     A warm, wet summer, she explains, “ensures that every leaf is packed with pigments and every tree is loaded with leaves, setting the stage for a spectacular show.”  An autumn cold snap can accentuate the colors, she says, because it causes a rapid breakdown of chlorophyll.  Dry weather can also intensify the colors, she says, because anthocyanin, a substance present in sap, becomes more concentrated as the water in the sap evaporates away.  And since sunlight also destroys chlorophyll, sunny fall weather can also add to fall brilliance.  So the best color show occurs during a fall that is dry, sunny, and cool at night, according to Frick-Ruppert.  “When these conditions are met,” she writes, “a short but spectacular show results, and it is the timing of the cold snap that determines when the show begins.”–April Moore  

     A few weeks ago, I was working at my outdoor office (a table on the back deck, overlooking the forest), when I noticed something moving at the edge of the deck, about 10 feet from me.

     Back and forth, back and forth it went in small movements.  It was a praying mantis, I realized!  Then the bobbing ceased,  and the insect stood motionless.   

     I ran inside to get my camera.  And once back outside, I saw that the insect remained just as before, in the same statue-like pose.  

     But as I moved closer, crouching to get a good picture, the insect suddenly turned its large, well-defined head to the side, to face me.  Two green, bulbous eyes stared from the heart-shaped head.  As we looked at each other, I felt a little unnerved.  It seemed that the two of us were confronting each other, taking one another’s measure.  It was a sensation I’d never experienced with an insect.  After the praying mantis seemed to have gotten a good look at me, it turned its head forward again and resumed its motionless stance.

     After I got a few photos of the creature, it began bobbing again, only this time it rocked from side to side.  And as it rocked, the praying mantis gradually turned its body away from me.  After it had shifted its position about 90 degrees, it stopped moving.  Completely.

     The praying mantis, so large in the insect world, is a sight to behold.  And while I think of the praying mantis as green, this one was more brown than green.  Green seemed to protrude only along the insect’s sides, from under a layer of brown that covered the insect’s head and back.

     After my ‘encounter’ with the praying mantis, I wanted to know more.  So I did a little reading.  And here are some things I learned:

• There are more than 1,800 praying mantis species in the world, 20 of them in North America.
• Praying mantises are carnivores, eating insects, turtles, mice, frogs, even small birds!
• The praying mantis strikes its pray in just 30-50 thousandths of a second, much faster than the human eye can follow.
• The ability of the praying mantis to rotate its head from side to side is almost unseen among insects.
• By moving its head, the praying mantis measures the distance between itself and another object.  This binocular triangulation is seen as proof of stereoscopic vision, which, except for the praying mantis, is found only in vertebrates.
• The praying mantis’s swaying is not well-understood.  Its purpose may be to mimic wind-blown foliage.
• The lifespan of the praying mantis extends from spring to fall of a single year.
• After the famous late summer mating ritual (actually, most of the time the male does escape with his head intact), the female lays 30-300 eggs.  The egg case hardens to protect the contents from predators, and the nymphs hatch in the spring. –April Moore       

 

 

The praying mantis, mostly brown, with green along the sides

  

The praying mantis turns its head to look at me