The Extraordinary Ecosystem

Something that has struck me over the past few days is the marvel of the ecosystem. Here is a habitat, a base set of rock and earth and weather and water, and here are the animals, plants, and microorganisms that thrive in it. All nature within this setting is adapted to its surroundings, and everything is connected to each other in breathtaking ways, a never-ending web of life.

Here is a whelk, a kind of sea snail that hunts clams and other smaller invertebrates. A seagull catches the whelk and eats it, leaving the shell behind. A hermit crab moves in for a year or so, then leaves the whelk to the waves. The shell is smashed by the waves upon the shore, drawn back, and smashed again, until it joins the beach as a grain of sand. A seagull dies, the other seagulls scavenge his flesh, and the ocean reclaims his bones and crushes them to sand, to join the remains of the whelk and the hermit crab and millions of other invertebrate leftovers, which are filtered by the bottom feeders, such as stingrays and guitarfish. Everything works together in a system that checks and balances and sustains the ecosystems for eons. 

It’s no wonder that environmentalists and conservationists work so hard to avoid significant changes to a habitat— one difference can upset the entire balance. However, these well-meaning scientists spend a great deal of their time telling people, with a vaguely threatening tone, that human interference always leads to destruction and death. Some of them imply, or say outright, that the world would be much better off if humans were not part of it. This is, of course, nonsense. If you’re an evolutionist, you believe that we are part of nature, so it’s our job to coexist with our fellow animals and continue to survive. If you are a creationist, you believe that we are stewards of the earth and should take care of it because God’s creation matters to Him. Either way, our goal should be to help the earth thrive— because when nature flourishes, so do we.

Today, the four of us visited a the aquarium, which leads visitors on a path starting with exhibits about wildlife of western NC, moving through a variety of displays until reaching a 306,000-gallon tank filled with fish of all kinds, including several sharks and a six-foot green moray eel (I will devote another blog to our visit). We took our time, giving me a chance to read the informational signs as well as watch the fish (and river otters!). 

Something that struck me was the variety of habitats that have been created by human interference: new ecosystems have appeared in reservoirs, piers, drainage ditches, and shipwrecks. Here were blatant examples of humans altering an ecosystem… and creating a new habitat for life to blossom. Humans affect our surroundings in different ways, but if we are wise, nature finds a way to fit in. The key is variety. Small ecosystems can eke along in a suburb of neatly-clipped lawns and saplings, but they thrive in a neighborhood of gardens. I firmly believe that the future of farming, and living conditions in general, is in permaculture: the idea that a farm or house/neighborhood should be an ecosystem to itself, a habitat where food and animals can grow in a way that is organic and harmonious. It’s based on the idea that we can take care of the land, as well as ourselves.

Habitats change, areas develop, ecosystems get caught in the middle— but human interference doesn’t have to have negative impact. If people can learn to be thoughtful of nature, rather than worshipping it or disregarding it, ecosystems will thrive everywhere. Every attempt we make to create an ecosystem, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction.

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