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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>Horseshoe crabs may look scary, but when it’s springtime in Delaware Bay, millions of these arthropods show they’re lovers, not fighters. They lay masses of blue-green eggs up on the shore. At just the right time, they pop and release the larvae within to the sea.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>These delicate, otherworldly creatures are just starting their lives —twitching and twirling inside their translucent homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re baby horseshoe crabs, preparing for the moment they can break free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all started two weeks ago, when the tides were at their highest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horseshoe crabs emerge from the briny deep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And head for the shore with only one thing on their minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A springtime spawning spree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atlantic horseshoe crabs gather, by the millions, along the East Coast of North America — from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crowds here in Delaware are some of the biggest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The males show up first, hanging out on the beach and in the shallows of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They scramble to latch on to the backs of passing females.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females can be the size of dinner plates, way bigger than the males.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Success!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They take advantage of the fleeting high tides to haul their precious cargo as high up the beach as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females muscle their way up the beach, with the males in tow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greatest danger for these horseshoe crabs is flipping over, exposing their vulnerable underside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it only takes a small wave to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the hood, horseshoe crabs’ legs end in pincers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mature males have something special on their front legs …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This “clasper” that looks like a little boxing glove with a hooked finger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s perfect for gripping the back of a female’s shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To flip back over, the animals use their long, spiky tail, called a telson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It looks a little scary, but horseshoe crabs don’t sting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horseshoe crabs have been making these high-tide treks under the glow of the full moon since before the dinosaurs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s more than 400 million years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone finds a date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially those younger males.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they hike up the beach anyway in hopes of getting in on the action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This female is dragging around two admirers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a female finds a good spot, she digs and digs into the wet sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The female lays roughly 4,000 eggs in one go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The male that clung to her all this time is in the best position to fertilize the most eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All those single dudes crowd around too, vying to fertilize the rest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the party winds down, the grown-ups start heading back to sea,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’ll return for more of these high-tide soirees throughout the season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They leave their fertilized eggs behind, buried in the damp sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each one is smaller than a pea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next couple of weeks the embryos inside develop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the high tides return — these larvae are ready to hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jostling of the waves stimulates them to break out of their shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is their chance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have just a few hours to scramble into the turbulent surf, before the high tide recedes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ll mature beneath the waves for roughly a decade before they’re ready to return as adults themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>… Where they’ll take their turn in this ancient dance of the moon, tides and sand.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Once a Spawn a Time: Horseshoe Crabs Mob the Beach | KQED",
"description": "Horseshoe crabs may look scary, but when it's springtime in Delaware Bay, millions of these arthropods show they're lovers, not fighters. They lay masses of blue-green eggs up on the shore. At just the right time, they pop and release the larvae within to the sea. TRANSCRIPT These delicate, otherworldly creatures are just starting their lives —twitching and twirling inside their translucent homes. They’re baby horseshoe crabs, preparing for the moment they can break free. It all started two weeks ago, when the tides were at their highest. Horseshoe crabs emerge from the briny deep. And head for the shore",
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"headline": "Once a Spawn a Time: Horseshoe Crabs Mob the Beach",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>Horseshoe crabs may look scary, but when it’s springtime in Delaware Bay, millions of these arthropods show they’re lovers, not fighters. They lay masses of blue-green eggs up on the shore. At just the right time, they pop and release the larvae within to the sea.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>These delicate, otherworldly creatures are just starting their lives —twitching and twirling inside their translucent homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re baby horseshoe crabs, preparing for the moment they can break free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all started two weeks ago, when the tides were at their highest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horseshoe crabs emerge from the briny deep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And head for the shore with only one thing on their minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A springtime spawning spree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atlantic horseshoe crabs gather, by the millions, along the East Coast of North America — from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crowds here in Delaware are some of the biggest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The males show up first, hanging out on the beach and in the shallows of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They scramble to latch on to the backs of passing females.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females can be the size of dinner plates, way bigger than the males.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Success!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They take advantage of the fleeting high tides to haul their precious cargo as high up the beach as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females muscle their way up the beach, with the males in tow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greatest danger for these horseshoe crabs is flipping over, exposing their vulnerable underside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it only takes a small wave to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the hood, horseshoe crabs’ legs end in pincers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mature males have something special on their front legs …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This “clasper” that looks like a little boxing glove with a hooked finger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s perfect for gripping the back of a female’s shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To flip back over, the animals use their long, spiky tail, called a telson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It looks a little scary, but horseshoe crabs don’t sting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horseshoe crabs have been making these high-tide treks under the glow of the full moon since before the dinosaurs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s more than 400 million years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone finds a date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially those younger males.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they hike up the beach anyway in hopes of getting in on the action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This female is dragging around two admirers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a female finds a good spot, she digs and digs into the wet sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The female lays roughly 4,000 eggs in one go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The male that clung to her all this time is in the best position to fertilize the most eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All those single dudes crowd around too, vying to fertilize the rest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the party winds down, the grown-ups start heading back to sea,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’ll return for more of these high-tide soirees throughout the season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They leave their fertilized eggs behind, buried in the damp sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each one is smaller than a pea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next couple of weeks the embryos inside develop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the high tides return — these larvae are ready to hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jostling of the waves stimulates them to break out of their shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is their chance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have just a few hours to scramble into the turbulent surf, before the high tide recedes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ll mature beneath the waves for roughly a decade before they’re ready to return as adults themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>… Where they’ll take their turn in this ancient dance of the moon, tides and sand.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Trapping Millions of 'Zombie' Urchins Could Restore California's Once Mighty Kelp Forests",
"headTitle": "Trapping Millions of ‘Zombie’ Urchins Could Restore California’s Once Mighty Kelp Forests | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Grant Downie is cruising through Caspar Bay, a small cove 150 miles north of San Francisco on the rugged Mendocino County coast. From the helm of his 18-foot fishing boat, The Rose, Downie steers along the jagged cliffs that surround a pristine beach at the shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sea in this protected inlet appears peaceful and calm. But below the surface, all is not well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align='right' citation='Mark Carr, a UC Santa Cruz']‘Let there be no question. These forests will not recover until urchin numbers have been reduced low enough and their behavior shifts back to remaining in cracks and crevices.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Down in the dark green water, hundreds of thousands of spiny purple sea urchins are scavenging the few remaining scraps of bull kelp, a leafy seaweed that once canopied California’s coastal waters from San Francisco to Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kelp provides habitat for countless marine species and captures carbon from the water and the atmosphere. But scientists say climate change is threatening kelp forests around the globe. In the last five years around 95% of Northern California’s bull kelp canopy was devoured by an influx of hungry sea urchins, aided by a temporary spike in ocean temperatures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was one of the first areas we saw the \u003ci>purps\u003c/i> really taking over,” says Downie, a 33-year-old second-generation commercial urchin fisherman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By “purps,” he means purple sea urchins. Of course, it could also be “perps,” as in \u003ci>perpetrators\u003c/i>. These ping pong-ball sized critters sprout sharp, violet purple spines, in all directions, and have voracious appetites for kelp and other algae. (They’ve also been known to devour jelly fish and even bird carcasses.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976054\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976054\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nature Conservancy, a science-based nonprofit, is studying different ways to remove purple sea urchins so kelp forests can rebound. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Downie kills the engine and we drift up to a buoy that’s connected by 20 feet of rope to a flat, hula hoop-shaped mesh trap. For two days, it’s been lying on the craggy ocean bottom, baited with strips of bull kelp, quietly attracting the purple urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelp once thrived in places like Caspar Bay. Now, Downie says the ocean floor is lined with bare rock and purple urchins. “There are reefs where it’s like a carpet of purple urchin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hoists up the line, yelping with pleasure as a mound of urchins spill onto the deck. Urchins on top of urchins, some weren’t even able to reach the kelp, but “were just on the trap because the kelp was there,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s left of the bull kelp is a ragged green mass, covered in bite marks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hammered it,” Downie says, describing the amount of kelp eaten by the urchin as “insane.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick count reveals the trap brought up more than 300 of the spiny invertebrates — a new personal record for Downie with a single trap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Collapse of a Forest\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downie’s trapping work is part of a research project spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy, a science-based nonprofit in search of solutions to pave the way for kelp’s recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949757/massive-california-kelp-decline-linked-to-ocean-heat-wave-voracious-sea-urchins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> collapse of California’s kelp forests\u003c/a> is complicated, but goes something like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 2014, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/looking-back-blob-record-warming-drives-unprecedented-ocean-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">warm water blob \u003c/a> from the Pacific Northwest combined with an El Niño pulse from the south to create a large, prolonged \u003ca href=\"https://news.ucsc.edu/2021/03/kelp-forests-norcal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> ocean heat wave\u003c/a>. Water temperatures spiked nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit above average in spots along the West Coast. Kelp thrives in colder waters, which have more of the nutrients it needs to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hardy kelp may have recovered naturally after the heat wave passed. But a second ecological disaster, potentially related to the warm waters, struck. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1937467/historic-sea-star-die-off-tied-to-global-warming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> disease\u003c/a> killed most of the sea stars on the West Coast, including the 24-limbed, bicycle-wheel-sized sunflower star that feasts on purple sea urchins. Without these predators around, the urchin population swelled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The urchins, typically concealed in protective, rocky crevasses where they patiently wait for fallen kelp leaves, came out of hiding and mowed down the forest, stalks and all. The state’s North Coast got hit the hardest. The kelp in Central and Southern California waters fared somewhat better because other predators there, like sea otters and lobsters, also eat urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For kelp to rebound, scientists first need to figure out how to remove millions of urchins from California waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N7APOWQkWs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A pile of purple sea urchins collects on a underwater trap in Caspar Bay. (Colin McHugh)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let there be no question,” says Mark Carr, a UC Santa Cruz marine ecology professor not affiliated with the Nature Conservancy project, “these forests will not recover until urchin numbers have been reduced low enough and their behavior shifts back to remaining in cracks and crevices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A New Solution\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past few years, scientists and wildlife managers have begun testing different solutions for solving the purple urchin problem. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/show/crosscurrents/2019-10-31/california-divers-fight-to-turn-the-tide-on-a-collapsing-ecosystem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> well-documented approach\u003c/a> has been to deploy scuba divers to harvest urchins by hand-plucking them off reefs. But diving is expensive and potentially dangerous in strong currents or bad weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Urchin trapping has been proposed as a comparatively safe and cost-effective way to cull a ton of urchin and safeguard kelp’s recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got these cleared areas in the harbor where we want the kelp to grow back,” Downie says, “Let’s just set traps all around it so that when the urchins come, they’re going to be in the traps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since no one’s ever tried using traps to catch urchins along the West Coast, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife granted the Nature Conservancy project a special permit to test out the method. Downie designed the traps himself: the flat-as-a-pancake version and another with collapsible walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976053\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976053\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Downie rigs an urchin trap with bull kelp and a GoPro camera. A single trap can capture more than 300 purple sea urchins. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might think so many urchins would be good news for an urchin fisherman. But Downie makes a living scuba diving for the larger and meatier red sea urchins, the kind you pay $8 a piece for at sushi bars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only a fraction of purple urchins grow big enough to eat. When they moved in, he says the red ones died or moved on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since this whole disaster, I’m hardly making a quarter of what I used to,” Downie says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disappearance of kelp has crippled other marine ecosystems, like the rockfish and red abalone fisheries that were once staples of the Northern California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just hurting the urchin divers,” Downie says. “That was a huge income for so many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the wake of the ecological and economic collapse, Downie decided to use his knowledge of urchins to help scientists find a solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had heard about the trapping project and I said, ‘Hey, I think it should stay urchin-based,’’’ he says. “We’re not trappers per se, and this [contract] could have gone to a crabber or somebody like that. But our industry is in decline, we’re looking for help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nature Conservancy pays Downie for his work, and he now represents the North Coast region on a state commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zombie Urchins Survive for Decades Without Eating\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without much kelp left to eat, most of the urchins Downie pulls from the water are starving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On the outside they look fine, on the inside they’re everything but fine,” says Tristin McHugh, an ecologist who directs the kelp recovery project for the Nature Conservancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean they’ll die-off naturally. These zombie urchins, as scientists call them, can survive for decades, biding their time until more kelp grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are some places in the world known to have them for 70-plus years in that state,” McHugh says. Which means it may be up to humans to tip the scales back in favor of kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976058\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976058\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inside of what scientists call a “zombie urchin.” Urchins can survive decades in this state. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other methods scientists are exploring for urchin removal include reintroducing natural predators, like sea stars or sea otters. Researchers at the University of Washington have begun the first-ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgcCjpXt7Ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">captive breeding program\u003c/span>\u003c/a> for sunflower stars, which still haven’t bounced back in California since the disease wiped them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each method has potential benefits and challenges, which include cost, safety, feasibility and regulatory hurdles, to name just a few.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973217/in-central-california-sea-otters-feast-on-purple-urchins-and-thats-good-for-kelp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> research shows \u003c/a> that sea otters eat urchins along the Central Coast, helping maintain patches of healthy kelp forest, Mark Carr from UC Santa Cruz, says it’s unlikely they would go after the zombies that blanket large areas of ocean floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The otters are not going to go out and waste their time and energy feeding on urchins that have very low nutritional value,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it pans out, urchin trapping has the potential to do some heavy lifting for conservation, especially when diving isn’t practical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By using traps, you may be able to extend your season for getting into the water,” says James Ray, a kelp specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “And you can target specific areas on a more constant basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By creating strongholds for kelp along the coast, he says, the forest may be better equipped to withstand future threats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But trapping has its limitations, too. Divers can swim right up to urchins, but dropping traps requires some guesswork. Trappers must hope that the urchins will be in expected locations. While trapping is less expensive than diving, it’s still costly and requires continual effort, whereas introducing predators may eventually sustain itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976056\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976056\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nature Conservancy’s kelp project director Tristin McHugh points out the spore packet on a healthy bull kelp frond in Caspar Bay. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ray, who’s been collaborating with the Nature Conservancy’s kelp recovery research, says no one method will be the “silver bullet answer.” He says trapping and diving could potentially work together, in tandem with other methods, as wildlife managers try to scale up solutions from small patches to the entire coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any solution,” he says, “is likely going to be a sort of a mosaic of smaller solutions that all work, ultimately, towards trying to increase resiliency in our kelp forest ecosystems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McHugh agrees with the kitchen sink approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We almost want these very simple, singular solutions,” she says, “But the really key piece right now is figuring out how many different methods we can utilize and facilitate this shift back into a kelp forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nature Conservancy currently donates the urchin carcasses to a company for composting. But McHugh says the long-term goal is to find a commercial market for the calcium-rich shells, like fertilizer or even road building materials, to help fund urchin removals on a larger scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Someone needs to buy the urchin because we can’t necessarily rely on grant funds or philanthropic funds,” she says. “We need to figure out how we can utilize purple urchin, whether it’s for soil additives or for pavement or whatever it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘Golden Tendrils’ of Hope\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there hasn’t been significant recovery of bull kelp in Northern California since the marine heat wave, there is some reason for hope. Ocean temperatures have normalized, restoring nutrients to a level “that can sustain kelp growth and productivity,” Ray says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While climate change increases the likelihood of warming events, kelp is known for its resiliency, replenishing itself every year from new spores and growing up to 2 feet a day. Along the North Coast, there have recently beens some \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/Northern-California-kelp-forest-shows-signs-of-16375965.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preliminary reports\u003c/a> of kelp beginning to reemerge in some areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: Back in Caspar Bay, McHugh kayaks close to the beach, where the sandy bottom prevents urchins from moving in. Surrounding her on all sides is a healthy canopy of bull kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just these glorious golden tendrils of kelp just floating, creating this wonderful canopy that houses tons of marine life, turns over carbon for us, just does everything that you would possibly want a canopy forming species to do,” McHugh says, “It’s currently doing for us right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She hasn’t seen kelp in this cove in years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can actually see the spore packets on the blades of the kelp getting ready to drop,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A single packet holds millions of spores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once they reach the seafloor, McHugh says, “male and female will find each other and they’ll wait for the next opportune ocean conditions to start growing and begin their life cycle again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a sign, she says, that if scientists can get rid of the urchins, California’s underwater forests will have a chance to return.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In the last five years around 95% of Northern California’s bull kelp canopy was devoured by an influx of hungry sea urchins.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Grant Downie is cruising through Caspar Bay, a small cove 150 miles north of San Francisco on the rugged Mendocino County coast. From the helm of his 18-foot fishing boat, The Rose, Downie steers along the jagged cliffs that surround a pristine beach at the shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sea in this protected inlet appears peaceful and calm. But below the surface, all is not well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Down in the dark green water, hundreds of thousands of spiny purple sea urchins are scavenging the few remaining scraps of bull kelp, a leafy seaweed that once canopied California’s coastal waters from San Francisco to Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kelp provides habitat for countless marine species and captures carbon from the water and the atmosphere. But scientists say climate change is threatening kelp forests around the globe. In the last five years around 95% of Northern California’s bull kelp canopy was devoured by an influx of hungry sea urchins, aided by a temporary spike in ocean temperatures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was one of the first areas we saw the \u003ci>purps\u003c/i> really taking over,” says Downie, a 33-year-old second-generation commercial urchin fisherman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By “purps,” he means purple sea urchins. Of course, it could also be “perps,” as in \u003ci>perpetrators\u003c/i>. These ping pong-ball sized critters sprout sharp, violet purple spines, in all directions, and have voracious appetites for kelp and other algae. (They’ve also been known to devour jelly fish and even bird carcasses.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976054\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976054\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nature Conservancy, a science-based nonprofit, is studying different ways to remove purple sea urchins so kelp forests can rebound. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Downie kills the engine and we drift up to a buoy that’s connected by 20 feet of rope to a flat, hula hoop-shaped mesh trap. For two days, it’s been lying on the craggy ocean bottom, baited with strips of bull kelp, quietly attracting the purple urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelp once thrived in places like Caspar Bay. Now, Downie says the ocean floor is lined with bare rock and purple urchins. “There are reefs where it’s like a carpet of purple urchin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hoists up the line, yelping with pleasure as a mound of urchins spill onto the deck. Urchins on top of urchins, some weren’t even able to reach the kelp, but “were just on the trap because the kelp was there,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s left of the bull kelp is a ragged green mass, covered in bite marks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hammered it,” Downie says, describing the amount of kelp eaten by the urchin as “insane.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick count reveals the trap brought up more than 300 of the spiny invertebrates — a new personal record for Downie with a single trap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Collapse of a Forest\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downie’s trapping work is part of a research project spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy, a science-based nonprofit in search of solutions to pave the way for kelp’s recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949757/massive-california-kelp-decline-linked-to-ocean-heat-wave-voracious-sea-urchins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> collapse of California’s kelp forests\u003c/a> is complicated, but goes something like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 2014, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/looking-back-blob-record-warming-drives-unprecedented-ocean-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">warm water blob \u003c/a> from the Pacific Northwest combined with an El Niño pulse from the south to create a large, prolonged \u003ca href=\"https://news.ucsc.edu/2021/03/kelp-forests-norcal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> ocean heat wave\u003c/a>. Water temperatures spiked nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit above average in spots along the West Coast. Kelp thrives in colder waters, which have more of the nutrients it needs to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hardy kelp may have recovered naturally after the heat wave passed. But a second ecological disaster, potentially related to the warm waters, struck. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1937467/historic-sea-star-die-off-tied-to-global-warming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> disease\u003c/a> killed most of the sea stars on the West Coast, including the 24-limbed, bicycle-wheel-sized sunflower star that feasts on purple sea urchins. Without these predators around, the urchin population swelled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The urchins, typically concealed in protective, rocky crevasses where they patiently wait for fallen kelp leaves, came out of hiding and mowed down the forest, stalks and all. The state’s North Coast got hit the hardest. The kelp in Central and Southern California waters fared somewhat better because other predators there, like sea otters and lobsters, also eat urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For kelp to rebound, scientists first need to figure out how to remove millions of urchins from California waters.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/2N7APOWQkWs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/2N7APOWQkWs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>A pile of purple sea urchins collects on a underwater trap in Caspar Bay. (Colin McHugh)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let there be no question,” says Mark Carr, a UC Santa Cruz marine ecology professor not affiliated with the Nature Conservancy project, “these forests will not recover until urchin numbers have been reduced low enough and their behavior shifts back to remaining in cracks and crevices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A New Solution\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past few years, scientists and wildlife managers have begun testing different solutions for solving the purple urchin problem. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/show/crosscurrents/2019-10-31/california-divers-fight-to-turn-the-tide-on-a-collapsing-ecosystem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> well-documented approach\u003c/a> has been to deploy scuba divers to harvest urchins by hand-plucking them off reefs. But diving is expensive and potentially dangerous in strong currents or bad weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Urchin trapping has been proposed as a comparatively safe and cost-effective way to cull a ton of urchin and safeguard kelp’s recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got these cleared areas in the harbor where we want the kelp to grow back,” Downie says, “Let’s just set traps all around it so that when the urchins come, they’re going to be in the traps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since no one’s ever tried using traps to catch urchins along the West Coast, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife granted the Nature Conservancy project a special permit to test out the method. Downie designed the traps himself: the flat-as-a-pancake version and another with collapsible walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976053\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976053\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Downie rigs an urchin trap with bull kelp and a GoPro camera. A single trap can capture more than 300 purple sea urchins. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might think so many urchins would be good news for an urchin fisherman. But Downie makes a living scuba diving for the larger and meatier red sea urchins, the kind you pay $8 a piece for at sushi bars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only a fraction of purple urchins grow big enough to eat. When they moved in, he says the red ones died or moved on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since this whole disaster, I’m hardly making a quarter of what I used to,” Downie says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disappearance of kelp has crippled other marine ecosystems, like the rockfish and red abalone fisheries that were once staples of the Northern California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just hurting the urchin divers,” Downie says. “That was a huge income for so many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the wake of the ecological and economic collapse, Downie decided to use his knowledge of urchins to help scientists find a solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had heard about the trapping project and I said, ‘Hey, I think it should stay urchin-based,’’’ he says. “We’re not trappers per se, and this [contract] could have gone to a crabber or somebody like that. But our industry is in decline, we’re looking for help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nature Conservancy pays Downie for his work, and he now represents the North Coast region on a state commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zombie Urchins Survive for Decades Without Eating\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without much kelp left to eat, most of the urchins Downie pulls from the water are starving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On the outside they look fine, on the inside they’re everything but fine,” says Tristin McHugh, an ecologist who directs the kelp recovery project for the Nature Conservancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean they’ll die-off naturally. These zombie urchins, as scientists call them, can survive for decades, biding their time until more kelp grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are some places in the world known to have them for 70-plus years in that state,” McHugh says. Which means it may be up to humans to tip the scales back in favor of kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976058\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976058\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inside of what scientists call a “zombie urchin.” Urchins can survive decades in this state. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other methods scientists are exploring for urchin removal include reintroducing natural predators, like sea stars or sea otters. Researchers at the University of Washington have begun the first-ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgcCjpXt7Ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">captive breeding program\u003c/span>\u003c/a> for sunflower stars, which still haven’t bounced back in California since the disease wiped them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each method has potential benefits and challenges, which include cost, safety, feasibility and regulatory hurdles, to name just a few.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973217/in-central-california-sea-otters-feast-on-purple-urchins-and-thats-good-for-kelp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> research shows \u003c/a> that sea otters eat urchins along the Central Coast, helping maintain patches of healthy kelp forest, Mark Carr from UC Santa Cruz, says it’s unlikely they would go after the zombies that blanket large areas of ocean floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The otters are not going to go out and waste their time and energy feeding on urchins that have very low nutritional value,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it pans out, urchin trapping has the potential to do some heavy lifting for conservation, especially when diving isn’t practical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By using traps, you may be able to extend your season for getting into the water,” says James Ray, a kelp specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “And you can target specific areas on a more constant basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By creating strongholds for kelp along the coast, he says, the forest may be better equipped to withstand future threats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But trapping has its limitations, too. Divers can swim right up to urchins, but dropping traps requires some guesswork. Trappers must hope that the urchins will be in expected locations. While trapping is less expensive than diving, it’s still costly and requires continual effort, whereas introducing predators may eventually sustain itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976056\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976056\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nature Conservancy’s kelp project director Tristin McHugh points out the spore packet on a healthy bull kelp frond in Caspar Bay. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ray, who’s been collaborating with the Nature Conservancy’s kelp recovery research, says no one method will be the “silver bullet answer.” He says trapping and diving could potentially work together, in tandem with other methods, as wildlife managers try to scale up solutions from small patches to the entire coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any solution,” he says, “is likely going to be a sort of a mosaic of smaller solutions that all work, ultimately, towards trying to increase resiliency in our kelp forest ecosystems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McHugh agrees with the kitchen sink approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We almost want these very simple, singular solutions,” she says, “But the really key piece right now is figuring out how many different methods we can utilize and facilitate this shift back into a kelp forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nature Conservancy currently donates the urchin carcasses to a company for composting. But McHugh says the long-term goal is to find a commercial market for the calcium-rich shells, like fertilizer or even road building materials, to help fund urchin removals on a larger scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Someone needs to buy the urchin because we can’t necessarily rely on grant funds or philanthropic funds,” she says. “We need to figure out how we can utilize purple urchin, whether it’s for soil additives or for pavement or whatever it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘Golden Tendrils’ of Hope\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there hasn’t been significant recovery of bull kelp in Northern California since the marine heat wave, there is some reason for hope. Ocean temperatures have normalized, restoring nutrients to a level “that can sustain kelp growth and productivity,” Ray says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While climate change increases the likelihood of warming events, kelp is known for its resiliency, replenishing itself every year from new spores and growing up to 2 feet a day. Along the North Coast, there have recently beens some \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/Northern-California-kelp-forest-shows-signs-of-16375965.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preliminary reports\u003c/a> of kelp beginning to reemerge in some areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: Back in Caspar Bay, McHugh kayaks close to the beach, where the sandy bottom prevents urchins from moving in. Surrounding her on all sides is a healthy canopy of bull kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just these glorious golden tendrils of kelp just floating, creating this wonderful canopy that houses tons of marine life, turns over carbon for us, just does everything that you would possibly want a canopy forming species to do,” McHugh says, “It’s currently doing for us right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She hasn’t seen kelp in this cove in years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can actually see the spore packets on the blades of the kelp getting ready to drop,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A single packet holds millions of spores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once they reach the seafloor, McHugh says, “male and female will find each other and they’ll wait for the next opportune ocean conditions to start growing and begin their life cycle again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>While you’re enjoying a day at the beach, female bumblebee-mimic digger bees are hard at work nearby building a different kind of sandcastle. This one’s not for play – it’s part of the nest where their offspring will grow.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It might seem peculiar, bees living at the beach. But this is their home, and they spend the spring building their perfect beach condos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At their local watering hole, they’re not actually having a drink. They’re collecting water as a raw material. They slurp it into a pouch in their abdomen called a crop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can carry one sixth of their weight in water, hauling it to the side of this cliff in Northern California. Now that’s a view!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back and forth, back and forth, 80 times a day. They’re building their nests from the cliff’s mix of sand, clay and gravel, spraying water to soften it up. See how she extends her proboscis and uses it like a hose?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she digs and digs and digs. They’re digger bees. The females build their nests side by side in what’s called an aggregation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The males, most of them have died by now, after mating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females work peacefully … most of the time. Hey, make your own nest!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even make sandcastles, shaping the earth they dig out into a turret. To do that, they pat down the wet gravel with the tip of their abdomen. Scientists think the turrets could help keep out large parasitic insects, like other kinds of bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This cratered landscape isn’t unusual. Most of the world’s bee species – 70%! – nest underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nest opening leads to a burrow a couple of inches long. At the bottom, she digs holes called brood cells. She will lay an egg in each one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first she needs to stock up on food for her future offspring. This flower is a favorite for nectar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And check out the pollen on this bee. Wait a minute! That’s not our digger bee. That’s a yellow-faced bumblebee. She’ll sting you if you mess with her. Our bee is a bumblebee mimic. She doesn’t sting. The real bumblebee has a bright-yellow band on the bottom of her abdomen. Our bee has a band higher up. By imitating a stinging bumblebee, she scares predators away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back from foraging, our digger packs pollen and nectar into each cell and lays an egg on top. The larva that hatches out will have a ready-made meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she tears down her turret, bit by bit. She uses it as mortar to seal her nest closed and keep her eggs safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After finishing a couple of nests, the bee’s brief, hardworking life comes to an end. The beach will be her final resting place. And next year, the ever-shifting sand will bear witness to her young emerging from their nests.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she digs and digs and digs. They’re digger bees. The females build their nests side by side in what’s called an aggregation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The males, most of them have died by now, after mating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females work peacefully … most of the time. Hey, make your own nest!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even make sandcastles, shaping the earth they dig out into a turret. To do that, they pat down the wet gravel with the tip of their abdomen. Scientists think the turrets could help keep out large parasitic insects, like other kinds of bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This cratered landscape isn’t unusual. Most of the world’s bee species – 70%! – nest underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nest opening leads to a burrow a couple of inches long. At the bottom, she digs holes called brood cells. She will lay an egg in each one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first she needs to stock up on food for her future offspring. This flower is a favorite for nectar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And check out the pollen on this bee. Wait a minute! That’s not our digger bee. That’s a yellow-faced bumblebee. She’ll sting you if you mess with her. Our bee is a bumblebee mimic. She doesn’t sting. The real bumblebee has a bright-yellow band on the bottom of her abdomen. Our bee has a band higher up. By imitating a stinging bumblebee, she scares predators away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back from foraging, our digger packs pollen and nectar into each cell and lays an egg on top. The larva that hatches out will have a ready-made meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she tears down her turret, bit by bit. She uses it as mortar to seal her nest closed and keep her eggs safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After finishing a couple of nests, the bee’s brief, hardworking life comes to an end. The beach will be her final resting place. And next year, the ever-shifting sand will bear witness to her young emerging from their nests.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>Native to the lakes of Mexico City, the axolotl stays in the water its whole life, swimming with a tail fin and breathing through frilly external gills. It’s nearly extinct in the wild, but survives in research labs the world over, studied for its amazing regenerative abilities. With our help, can these beloved creatures thrive once again in their ancestral home?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The axolotl isn’t just a frilly salamander with a half-smile and a blank stare.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s named after an Aztec god, who escaped death by morphing into this amphibian shape.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a creature that’s a bridge between worlds: the spiritual and the natural; the aquatic and the terrestrial; survival and extinction. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.biographic.com/mexico-city-and-its-sacred-salamanders/\">Check out this video produced by bioGraphic and the California Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> that dives deeper into the cultural significance and conservation work being done in Mexico City to help preserve axolotls in the wild. Portions of this video (produced by filmmaker \u003ca href=\"http://www.katiegarrett.co.uk/\">Katie Garrett\u003c/a>), were licensed for use in our Deep Look episode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/complete-axolotl-genome-could-reveal-secret-regenerating-tissues-180971335/\">Learn more about the work being done to unravel the secrets of axolotl’s powers of limb regeneration\u003c/a>, and how it might someday be applied to human medicine. [/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like most of its salamander relatives, the axolotl begins its life as a tiny, translucent egg laid underwater. It grows into a tadpole — a larva with gills and a flattened, fin-shaped tail. In time, many salamanders shed these features, develop lungs, and crawl onto land. But the axolotl never makes the transition ashore. Even as it grows — up to a foot in length — it hangs on to its larval lifestyle. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The gills are reddish-purple from the blood cells pulsing through them, pulling oxygen directly from the water. To breathe, it just flaps those gills.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But if that doesn’t work — like if there’s not enough oxygen in the water — the axolotl has a backup: fully functional lungs it can use to gulp air from the surface. These organs are evolutionary leftovers from when its ancestors lived on land. The axolotl’s lungs are a rare example of cryptic metamorphosis — when an animal matures to its next stage of development internally, but doesn’t show it on the outside.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite its flexibility, this magnificent vertebrate is in trouble.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since the 16th century, the axolotl’s native habitat, Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City, has been built over and polluted as this megacity grew. Now the lake is just a few canals, where the axolotls battle invasive predators, and warming waters from climate change. Here, in the remnants of their ancestral home, only a few hundred are left. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But scattered across the globe, you’ll find thousands of them — not in the wild though. They’re in research labs. Scientists are impressed by the axolotl’s ability to rapidly regenerate damaged limbs, organs, even parts of their brain. And that’s amazing for a vertebrate — an animal with a backbone — like us. Harnessing this healing ability for humans would be a breakthrough.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what does it mean if an animal is thriving only in captivity? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is a species without its natural habitat?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To preserve what’s left of the axolotl’s wild home, a team of biologists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico started an innovative collaboration. They work with farmers of the chinampas — the traditional floating gardens along the Xochimilco canals where the animals still live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The farmers filter canal water for crops through native aquatic plants and gravel, without the use of pesticides. This protects axolotls from both pollution and invasive predators.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many in Mexico City, axolotls have come to symbolize the connection between humans and the natural world. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Humans have put axolotls and our environment in peril. But with traditional knowledge, respect, and some ingenuity, we can give these remarkable animals a chance to come back. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>Native to the lakes of Mexico City, the axolotl stays in the water its whole life, swimming with a tail fin and breathing through frilly external gills. It’s nearly extinct in the wild, but survives in research labs the world over, studied for its amazing regenerative abilities. With our help, can these beloved creatures thrive once again in their ancestral home?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The axolotl isn’t just a frilly salamander with a half-smile and a blank stare.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s named after an Aztec god, who escaped death by morphing into this amphibian shape.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a creature that’s a bridge between worlds: the spiritual and the natural; the aquatic and the terrestrial; survival and extinction. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.biographic.com/mexico-city-and-its-sacred-salamanders/\">Check out this video produced by bioGraphic and the California Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> that dives deeper into the cultural significance and conservation work being done in Mexico City to help preserve axolotls in the wild. Portions of this video (produced by filmmaker \u003ca href=\"http://www.katiegarrett.co.uk/\">Katie Garrett\u003c/a>), were licensed for use in our Deep Look episode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/complete-axolotl-genome-could-reveal-secret-regenerating-tissues-180971335/\">Learn more about the work being done to unravel the secrets of axolotl’s powers of limb regeneration\u003c/a>, and how it might someday be applied to human medicine. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like most of its salamander relatives, the axolotl begins its life as a tiny, translucent egg laid underwater. It grows into a tadpole — a larva with gills and a flattened, fin-shaped tail. In time, many salamanders shed these features, develop lungs, and crawl onto land. But the axolotl never makes the transition ashore. Even as it grows — up to a foot in length — it hangs on to its larval lifestyle. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The gills are reddish-purple from the blood cells pulsing through them, pulling oxygen directly from the water. To breathe, it just flaps those gills.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But if that doesn’t work — like if there’s not enough oxygen in the water — the axolotl has a backup: fully functional lungs it can use to gulp air from the surface. These organs are evolutionary leftovers from when its ancestors lived on land. The axolotl’s lungs are a rare example of cryptic metamorphosis — when an animal matures to its next stage of development internally, but doesn’t show it on the outside.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite its flexibility, this magnificent vertebrate is in trouble.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since the 16th century, the axolotl’s native habitat, Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City, has been built over and polluted as this megacity grew. Now the lake is just a few canals, where the axolotls battle invasive predators, and warming waters from climate change. Here, in the remnants of their ancestral home, only a few hundred are left. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But scattered across the globe, you’ll find thousands of them — not in the wild though. They’re in research labs. Scientists are impressed by the axolotl’s ability to rapidly regenerate damaged limbs, organs, even parts of their brain. And that’s amazing for a vertebrate — an animal with a backbone — like us. Harnessing this healing ability for humans would be a breakthrough.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what does it mean if an animal is thriving only in captivity? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is a species without its natural habitat?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To preserve what’s left of the axolotl’s wild home, a team of biologists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico started an innovative collaboration. They work with farmers of the chinampas — the traditional floating gardens along the Xochimilco canals where the animals still live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The farmers filter canal water for crops through native aquatic plants and gravel, without the use of pesticides. This protects axolotls from both pollution and invasive predators.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many in Mexico City, axolotls have come to symbolize the connection between humans and the natural world. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Humans have put axolotls and our environment in peril. But with traditional knowledge, respect, and some ingenuity, we can give these remarkable animals a chance to come back. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>The devilish caterpillars of the pipevine swallowtail butterfly *devour* the California pipevine, never mind that the plant is trying to poison them. Their butterfly moms don’t pollinate the pipevine in return, though. So the vine traps unlucky gnats in its labyrinthine flowers to do the job.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This is the story of a love triangle between a plant, a striking butterfly and an intrepid – though unlucky – gnat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like every good love story … it has plant sex, deceit, and even an attempted poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the center of this triangle is the California pipevine. Its supple vines wind around other plants or structures, like this arbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also known as the California Dutchman’s pipe because its flowers are curved in the shape of a tobacco pipe. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then there’s these “lips.” Oh hello, gorgeous!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vine grows heart-shaped leaves, but don’t be fooled. The plant produces poisonous compounds that could cause kidney cancer if you ate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the California pipevine swallowtail butterfly loves it, even though the vine is trying to poison the butterfly’s babies. Talk about a toxic relationship! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These Bay Area botanical gardens have the California pipevine on display and sometimes for sale. They also occasionally teach classes on how to propagate the plant:\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/\">University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/tilden/botanic_garden.htm\">Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Regional Park, in Berkeley\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfbg.org/\">San Francisco Botanical Garden\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through his \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaPipevineSwallowtail/\">California Pipevine Swallowtail Project page on Facebook\u003c/a>, San Francisco biologist Tim Wong shares tips on growing California pipevine to attract the butterflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The caterpillars have evolved to depend on the vine. It’s their only food. And they turn its poison into their own weapon. As they chomp away, they accumulate the toxins in their bodies and make themselves noxious to predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bright orange screams “I can make you sick!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even the butterfly’s eggs are crusted with toxins. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After hatching, the caterpillars feast side by side. Scientists call this gregarious behavior. They’re not just being social. Feeding together helps them get bigger faster, though scientists don’t know exactly why. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the faster they grow, the sooner they’ll stock up on those defensive compounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So does the pipevine get anything out of this deal? Pollination by the butterflies, maybe? Nope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They drink nectar from other flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when the pipevine’s flowers come out in early spring, they lure in and trap tiny flies called fungus gnats. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flowers entice them with a mushroomy aroma that reminds the gnats of the fungi they feed on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once in there, it’s really hard to get out. Here’s what it looks like inside the flower, from the bottom of the pipe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the actual exit … the way it got in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this is where the flower keeps its pollen. It *could* be a way out, all lit up by the sun. So, the gnat flies up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It gets stuck, at least for a bit. But the flower doesn’t eat it, like a carnivorous plant would. The flower only needs to keep it hostage until some pollen grains attach to the fly’s hairs. This is called deceptive pollination. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many gnats the ordeal is too much. They don’t make it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some do escape. If one falls for the same pipevine trick again and gets caught in another flower … boom! Pollination. That flower will turn into a seed-carrying fruit that will eventually lead to new places for this butterfly to lay her eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’ll never know the debt of gratitude she owes a certain disoriented gnat.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then there’s these “lips.” Oh hello, gorgeous!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vine grows heart-shaped leaves, but don’t be fooled. The plant produces poisonous compounds that could cause kidney cancer if you ate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the California pipevine swallowtail butterfly loves it, even though the vine is trying to poison the butterfly’s babies. Talk about a toxic relationship! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These Bay Area botanical gardens have the California pipevine on display and sometimes for sale. They also occasionally teach classes on how to propagate the plant:\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/\">University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/tilden/botanic_garden.htm\">Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Regional Park, in Berkeley\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfbg.org/\">San Francisco Botanical Garden\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through his \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaPipevineSwallowtail/\">California Pipevine Swallowtail Project page on Facebook\u003c/a>, San Francisco biologist Tim Wong shares tips on growing California pipevine to attract the butterflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The caterpillars have evolved to depend on the vine. It’s their only food. And they turn its poison into their own weapon. As they chomp away, they accumulate the toxins in their bodies and make themselves noxious to predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bright orange screams “I can make you sick!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even the butterfly’s eggs are crusted with toxins. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After hatching, the caterpillars feast side by side. Scientists call this gregarious behavior. They’re not just being social. Feeding together helps them get bigger faster, though scientists don’t know exactly why. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the faster they grow, the sooner they’ll stock up on those defensive compounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So does the pipevine get anything out of this deal? Pollination by the butterflies, maybe? Nope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They drink nectar from other flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when the pipevine’s flowers come out in early spring, they lure in and trap tiny flies called fungus gnats. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flowers entice them with a mushroomy aroma that reminds the gnats of the fungi they feed on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once in there, it’s really hard to get out. Here’s what it looks like inside the flower, from the bottom of the pipe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the actual exit … the way it got in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this is where the flower keeps its pollen. It *could* be a way out, all lit up by the sun. So, the gnat flies up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It gets stuck, at least for a bit. But the flower doesn’t eat it, like a carnivorous plant would. The flower only needs to keep it hostage until some pollen grains attach to the fly’s hairs. This is called deceptive pollination. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many gnats the ordeal is too much. They don’t make it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some do escape. If one falls for the same pipevine trick again and gets caught in another flower … boom! Pollination. That flower will turn into a seed-carrying fruit that will eventually lead to new places for this butterfly to lay her eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’ll never know the debt of gratitude she owes a certain disoriented gnat.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>Look past their grasping claws and lightning-fast stingers, and you’ll see scorpions have a delicate pair of comb-like organs on their belly called pectines. These sensory body parts help them navigate, and figure out who’s a menace, a meal or a mate.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Powerful pincers. Paralyzing venom. Armor fortified with iron and zinc. They’re totally metal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scorpion has a fierce reputation that’s lasted through the ages. Its ancestors were some of Earth’s earliest predators. But this beast has a secret — a softer side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://baynature.org/article/there-are-so-many-scorpions/\">Check out this article in Bay Nature about the global diversity of scorpions\u003c/a>, and how there may be a scorpion in your very backyard. The article has some excellent tips for all you brave and curious scorpion seekers out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For further information about local San Francisco Bay Area scorpions, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/local-scorpions\">go to the California Academy of Science, and learn from scorpion expert Lauren Esposito\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/local-scorpions\">In this video,\u003c/a> you can even see an example of a scorpion giving live birth![/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you flip over a scorpion — don’t try this at home — its belly is sensitive, and not just because its armor is thinner there. Right behind its legs, you’ll see a couple of comb-like organs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are pectines, and every scorpion has a pair. The comb teeth are covered in tiny sensors called peg sensilla. Every peg sensillum has a slit-shaped pore that takes in chemical traces from the ground and air. Each is attached to roughly a dozen nerve cells. This helps the scorpion’s brain read the chemicals, to understand its environment. It’s similar to how we taste and smell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s useful, because even though it has many eyes, a scorpion’s vision is not the best. When two scorpions meet, they use their pectines to sense each other’s pheromones — invisible chemical signals they release into the world around them. This helps them determine who’s a menace, meal, or potential mate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looks like these two are a match. They’re not fighting, they’re — well — holding hands and kissing, scorpion style. And this is their version of a slow dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The male deposits a packet of sperm on the ground inside a casing called a spermatophore. She picks up what she needs, and just like that, this brief but sweet courtship is over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The peg sensilla are also sensitive to physical cues. They brush the ground as the scorpion walks, deciphering textures that help it navigate. But the pectines aren’t its only specialized sensors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scorpion’s dainty feet and hairs all over its body also help it pick up minuscule vibrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mmm! Dinner!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fossils show scorpions have existed in some form or another since before the dinosaurs. At night, researchers can find scorpions because they glow under a simple UV flashlight. Why this is, is a mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, there are more than 2,000 species found all over the planet. And scientists are still discovering more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s so much pressure out there to be tough, smart, fast. Maybe the real trick to survival is cultivating your sensitive side, for hundreds of millions of years.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "Look past their grasping claws and lightning-fast stingers, and you’ll see scorpions have a delicate pair of comb-like organs on their belly called pectines. These sensory body parts help them navigate, and figure out who’s a menace, a meal or a mate. TRANSCRIPT Powerful pincers. Paralyzing venom. Armor fortified with iron and zinc. They’re totally metal. The scorpion has a fierce reputation that’s lasted through the ages. Its ancestors were some of Earth’s earliest predators. But this beast has a secret — a softer side. If you flip over a scorpion — don’t try this at home — its belly",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>Look past their grasping claws and lightning-fast stingers, and you’ll see scorpions have a delicate pair of comb-like organs on their belly called pectines. These sensory body parts help them navigate, and figure out who’s a menace, a meal or a mate.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Powerful pincers. Paralyzing venom. Armor fortified with iron and zinc. They’re totally metal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scorpion has a fierce reputation that’s lasted through the ages. Its ancestors were some of Earth’s earliest predators. But this beast has a secret — a softer side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://baynature.org/article/there-are-so-many-scorpions/\">Check out this article in Bay Nature about the global diversity of scorpions\u003c/a>, and how there may be a scorpion in your very backyard. The article has some excellent tips for all you brave and curious scorpion seekers out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For further information about local San Francisco Bay Area scorpions, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/local-scorpions\">go to the California Academy of Science, and learn from scorpion expert Lauren Esposito\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/local-scorpions\">In this video,\u003c/a> you can even see an example of a scorpion giving live birth!",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you flip over a scorpion — don’t try this at home — its belly is sensitive, and not just because its armor is thinner there. Right behind its legs, you’ll see a couple of comb-like organs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are pectines, and every scorpion has a pair. The comb teeth are covered in tiny sensors called peg sensilla. Every peg sensillum has a slit-shaped pore that takes in chemical traces from the ground and air. Each is attached to roughly a dozen nerve cells. This helps the scorpion’s brain read the chemicals, to understand its environment. It’s similar to how we taste and smell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s useful, because even though it has many eyes, a scorpion’s vision is not the best. When two scorpions meet, they use their pectines to sense each other’s pheromones — invisible chemical signals they release into the world around them. This helps them determine who’s a menace, meal, or potential mate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looks like these two are a match. They’re not fighting, they’re — well — holding hands and kissing, scorpion style. And this is their version of a slow dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The male deposits a packet of sperm on the ground inside a casing called a spermatophore. She picks up what she needs, and just like that, this brief but sweet courtship is over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The peg sensilla are also sensitive to physical cues. They brush the ground as the scorpion walks, deciphering textures that help it navigate. But the pectines aren’t its only specialized sensors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scorpion’s dainty feet and hairs all over its body also help it pick up minuscule vibrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mmm! Dinner!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fossils show scorpions have existed in some form or another since before the dinosaurs. At night, researchers can find scorpions because they glow under a simple UV flashlight. Why this is, is a mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, there are more than 2,000 species found all over the planet. And scientists are still discovering more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s so much pressure out there to be tough, smart, fast. Maybe the real trick to survival is cultivating your sensitive side, for hundreds of millions of years.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Earth Day 2021: 11 Bay Area Events to Get You Inspired",
"headTitle": "Earth Day 2021: 11 Bay Area Events to Get You Inspired | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, kicked off the modern environmental movement with more than 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population — hitting the streets to demand action against unchecked pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now in its 51st year, the event has transformed into a global movement with participation by more than 1 billion people across 192 countries. This year’s theme is “\u003ca href=\"https://www.earthday.org/toolkit-earth-day-2021-restore-our-earth/\">Restore Our Earth\u003c/a>,” emphasizing the importance of enlisting natural processes, emerging green technologies and innovative thinking to restore ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, on its 50th anniversary, California EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1962618/has-earth-day-had-any-impact-california-environmental-chief-weighs-in\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said \u003c/a>Earth Day has had “a major impact on policy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Back in 1970, we didn’t have the Clean Air Act, we didn’t have the Clean Water Act, we didn’t have any federal legislation, really, relating to the environment,” he said. “And people went out on the streets, made their voices heard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year Earth Day will be mainly virtual again. But with the Bay Area slowly opening up, there are some in-person options, too. Just remember to mask up and social distance. Below are a few, mostly Bay Area events to put on your radar:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrate-earth-day-outdoors-with-bandaloop-vertical-dance-open-rehearsal-tickets-150758900931\">\u003cstrong>BANDALOOP\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day Vertical Dance Rehearsal Outdoors\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 4-5 p.m., Oakland, In-Person Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nCelebrate Earth Day with aerial dance company BANDALOOP and special guests as the group unveils excerpts from its newest work, LOOM, weaving performance, research and education around the ancestral power and ecological impacts of textiles past, present and future. Event highlights include: Live music by Ben Juodvalkis, Chibueze Crouch, and Charles Peoples III. Special guest speakers include eco-somatic dance artist and inaugural BANDALOOP Artist-In-Residence Jes DeVille, and Phoenix Armenta from the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974001\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1974001\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert.jpg\" alt=\"BANDALOOP dancers perform on side of building in Oakland\" width=\"800\" height=\"445\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert-160x89.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert-768x427.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">BANDALOOP dancers perform on the side of the Breuner building in downtown Oakland. \u003ccite>(Krystal Harfert/BANDALOOP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/nightlife/nightschool-earth-day-for-the-people\">\u003cstrong>California Academy of Sciences\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>NightSchool: Earth Day for the People\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 7 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nGet inspired by people and organizations radically changing both the health of the environment and their communities through “greenprint” projects that focus on sustainable development, environmental justice, and remaking the food system. Featured speakers include: Elizabeth Hiroyasu, landscape scientist at The Nature Conservancy of California; Dr. Mónica Ramírez-Andreotta, assistant professor at the University of Arizona and director of Project Harvest; and Ashley Yates, media director for Planting Justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://chabotspace.org/calendar/saving-the-dark-movie-and-panel-discussion/\">\u003cstrong>Chabot Space and Science Center\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day Screening: Saving the Dark\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 23 – 7 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEnjoy a special screening and discussion of “Saving The Dark,” a documentary about astronomy and light pollution. Event highlights include film producer Sriram Murali, joined by astronomers Richard Ozer and Gerald McKeegan, to discuss the costs of light pollution, including its effects on our health, wildlife and environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/after-dark-online-earth-day\">\u003cstrong>The Exploratorium\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>After Dark Online: Earth Day\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 7 p.m., Free Virtual Event \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nDiscover the work of local organizations that expose inequitable impacts of climate change and advocate for environmental justice and legislation. Event highlights include: Conversations with youth leaders from Oakland-based Youth vs. Apocalypse and a virtual screening of the short film “My 25: The Ocean Between Us,” a student film that merges memories and reality to tell an intimate story of how our oceans have changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parksconservancy.org/events/earth-day-2021\">\u003cstrong>Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy\u003cbr>\nEarth Day Events\u003cbr>\nMake a Monarch Butterfly Kite for Earth Day!\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 11 a.m.-12 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nJoin National Park Service Ranger Rebecca Au and Price Sheppy as they take you step by step through building your own monarch butterfly kite to fly on Earth Day. You will also hear stories about the monarch butterfly and find out more about what you can do to help these beautiful animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parksconservancy.org/events/earth-day-2021\">\u003cstrong>Monitoring Frogs in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 23 – Noon-1:30 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nLearn about the common and uncommon frogs you can see in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Join the conversation and find out about efforts to reintroduce and monitor the California red-legged frog, a threatened population in the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://fortmason.org/event/flix/international-ocean-film-festival-2021-earth-day/\">\u003cstrong>International Ocean Film Festival (IOFF)\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day Drive-in Screening at Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 8:30-10:30 p.m.\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> Tickets Required, $49 Per Vehicle\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIOFF is presenting a special screening of two of its 2021 award-winning films, “Ocean Souls” and “Whales in a Changing Ocean.” This screening is part of the 18th annual IOFF taking place virtually through May 2, showcasing more than 80 independent films, representing 17 countries, reflecting IOFF’s mission of restoring, protecting and balancing ocean biodiversity through independent films. If you can’t make it to the drive-in, these films are also screening virtually. Check out this year’s festival schedule at \u003ca href=\"http://www.IntlOceanFilmFest.org/\">IntlOceanFilmFest.org\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/events/146656235749\">KQED\u003cbr>\nOn Common Ground: Hyper-Local Climate Resilience\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 6 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nMany people can adapt to climate change via migration, but for some, adaptation means finding the solutions to remain in place. KQED’s senior science editor, Katrin Snow, will moderate a conversation on how resiliency takes hold on a local level in two very different locations, Marin City and the Sierra Nevada. Special guests include: Terrie Harris-Green of Shore Up Marin City; Beth Rose Middleton Manning, professor and department chair of the Native American Studies Department at UC Davis; and guest reporter Janelle Marie Salanga, engagement reporting intern at the College Journalism Network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/earth-day-2021\">\u003cstrong>National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day 2021\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 21-23 – Multiday, Free Virtual Events\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nWhen you think of NASA, you might think of astronauts and missions to Mars. But NASA also has a variety of missions that focus on studying Earth, from sea level rise to hurricanes. NASA’s three-day Earth Day virtual event extravaganza features: Live presentations and chats with NASA Earth science experts; an interactive kid-friendly science fun zone with coloring and activity sheets; and Meet a Scientist videos. Plus, you can find out how you can be a scientist for NASA. There’s also an online scavenger hunt to kick off #GrowForLaunch, a chance to learn about plants grown in space and how you can start your own “space” garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandzoo.org/programs-and-events/earth-day\">\u003cstrong>Oakland Zoo\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day Events\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22-25 – 10 a.m.-3:30p.m., Timed Tickets Required, $24-$20, Free Virtual Activities\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nCelebrate animals and the planet and learn how to take action against the illegal wildlife trade. All guests must reserve a ticket for a specific date and entry time. Event highlights include an in-person scavenger hunt that will focus on animals that need saving from illegal wildlife trade. The zoo also has several online activities to help you act for the planet from the comfort of your own home, such as learning what plants attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://browercenter.org/wsff-2021\">\u003cstrong>The David Brower Center\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Wild and Scenic Film Festival Earth Day 2021\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 7 p.m., Tickets Required, General $25, Student $15, Group Rates Available \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe Wild and Scenic Film Festival, organized by Citizens Climate Lobby Alameda County, the David Brower Center, Earth Island Institute, Green the Church, and Communities for a Better Environment, is hosting a virtual Earth Day screening with films that tell extraordinary stories of local and global front-line communities fighting for environmental justice and restoration. After the live event on the 22nd, all films will be available on-demand from April 23-27. Included with every ticket is an on-demand bonus session featuring five films about threatened wildlife and efforts to protect their habitats and save them from extinction. Get $5 off with this special code: WSFFDBC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman-.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1974013\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman-.jpg\" alt=\"earthday_wsf\" width=\"800\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman-.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman--160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman--768x490.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Included with every ticket is an on-demand bonus session featuring five amazing films about threatened wildlife and efforts to protect their habitats and save them from extinction. \u003ccite>(Wild and Scenic Film Festival)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Check your local event listings for additional Earth Day related community events in your neighborhood. And be sure to bookmark \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayareascience.org\">bayareascience.org\u003c/a> for year-round science and environment events and festivals. Below is a reminder of a few things you can do to make every day Earth Day, courtesy of the \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/earthday.html\">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1974014\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2.jpg\" alt=\"NOAAA\" width=\"800\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2-768x481.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, kicked off the modern environmental movement with more than 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population — hitting the streets to demand action against unchecked pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now in its 51st year, the event has transformed into a global movement with participation by more than 1 billion people across 192 countries. This year’s theme is “\u003ca href=\"https://www.earthday.org/toolkit-earth-day-2021-restore-our-earth/\">Restore Our Earth\u003c/a>,” emphasizing the importance of enlisting natural processes, emerging green technologies and innovative thinking to restore ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, on its 50th anniversary, California EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1962618/has-earth-day-had-any-impact-california-environmental-chief-weighs-in\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said \u003c/a>Earth Day has had “a major impact on policy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Back in 1970, we didn’t have the Clean Air Act, we didn’t have the Clean Water Act, we didn’t have any federal legislation, really, relating to the environment,” he said. “And people went out on the streets, made their voices heard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year Earth Day will be mainly virtual again. But with the Bay Area slowly opening up, there are some in-person options, too. Just remember to mask up and social distance. Below are a few, mostly Bay Area events to put on your radar:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrate-earth-day-outdoors-with-bandaloop-vertical-dance-open-rehearsal-tickets-150758900931\">\u003cstrong>BANDALOOP\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day Vertical Dance Rehearsal Outdoors\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 4-5 p.m., Oakland, In-Person Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nCelebrate Earth Day with aerial dance company BANDALOOP and special guests as the group unveils excerpts from its newest work, LOOM, weaving performance, research and education around the ancestral power and ecological impacts of textiles past, present and future. Event highlights include: Live music by Ben Juodvalkis, Chibueze Crouch, and Charles Peoples III. Special guest speakers include eco-somatic dance artist and inaugural BANDALOOP Artist-In-Residence Jes DeVille, and Phoenix Armenta from the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974001\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1974001\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert.jpg\" alt=\"BANDALOOP dancers perform on side of building in Oakland\" width=\"800\" height=\"445\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert-160x89.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/BandaLoop_Photo-by-Krystal-Harfert-768x427.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">BANDALOOP dancers perform on the side of the Breuner building in downtown Oakland. \u003ccite>(Krystal Harfert/BANDALOOP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/nightlife/nightschool-earth-day-for-the-people\">\u003cstrong>California Academy of Sciences\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>NightSchool: Earth Day for the People\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 7 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nGet inspired by people and organizations radically changing both the health of the environment and their communities through “greenprint” projects that focus on sustainable development, environmental justice, and remaking the food system. Featured speakers include: Elizabeth Hiroyasu, landscape scientist at The Nature Conservancy of California; Dr. Mónica Ramírez-Andreotta, assistant professor at the University of Arizona and director of Project Harvest; and Ashley Yates, media director for Planting Justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://chabotspace.org/calendar/saving-the-dark-movie-and-panel-discussion/\">\u003cstrong>Chabot Space and Science Center\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day Screening: Saving the Dark\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 23 – 7 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEnjoy a special screening and discussion of “Saving The Dark,” a documentary about astronomy and light pollution. Event highlights include film producer Sriram Murali, joined by astronomers Richard Ozer and Gerald McKeegan, to discuss the costs of light pollution, including its effects on our health, wildlife and environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/after-dark-online-earth-day\">\u003cstrong>The Exploratorium\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>After Dark Online: Earth Day\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 7 p.m., Free Virtual Event \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nDiscover the work of local organizations that expose inequitable impacts of climate change and advocate for environmental justice and legislation. Event highlights include: Conversations with youth leaders from Oakland-based Youth vs. Apocalypse and a virtual screening of the short film “My 25: The Ocean Between Us,” a student film that merges memories and reality to tell an intimate story of how our oceans have changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parksconservancy.org/events/earth-day-2021\">\u003cstrong>Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy\u003cbr>\nEarth Day Events\u003cbr>\nMake a Monarch Butterfly Kite for Earth Day!\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 11 a.m.-12 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nJoin National Park Service Ranger Rebecca Au and Price Sheppy as they take you step by step through building your own monarch butterfly kite to fly on Earth Day. You will also hear stories about the monarch butterfly and find out more about what you can do to help these beautiful animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parksconservancy.org/events/earth-day-2021\">\u003cstrong>Monitoring Frogs in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 23 – Noon-1:30 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nLearn about the common and uncommon frogs you can see in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Join the conversation and find out about efforts to reintroduce and monitor the California red-legged frog, a threatened population in the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://fortmason.org/event/flix/international-ocean-film-festival-2021-earth-day/\">\u003cstrong>International Ocean Film Festival (IOFF)\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day Drive-in Screening at Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 8:30-10:30 p.m.\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> Tickets Required, $49 Per Vehicle\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIOFF is presenting a special screening of two of its 2021 award-winning films, “Ocean Souls” and “Whales in a Changing Ocean.” This screening is part of the 18th annual IOFF taking place virtually through May 2, showcasing more than 80 independent films, representing 17 countries, reflecting IOFF’s mission of restoring, protecting and balancing ocean biodiversity through independent films. If you can’t make it to the drive-in, these films are also screening virtually. Check out this year’s festival schedule at \u003ca href=\"http://www.IntlOceanFilmFest.org/\">IntlOceanFilmFest.org\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/events/146656235749\">KQED\u003cbr>\nOn Common Ground: Hyper-Local Climate Resilience\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 6 p.m., Free Virtual Event\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nMany people can adapt to climate change via migration, but for some, adaptation means finding the solutions to remain in place. KQED’s senior science editor, Katrin Snow, will moderate a conversation on how resiliency takes hold on a local level in two very different locations, Marin City and the Sierra Nevada. Special guests include: Terrie Harris-Green of Shore Up Marin City; Beth Rose Middleton Manning, professor and department chair of the Native American Studies Department at UC Davis; and guest reporter Janelle Marie Salanga, engagement reporting intern at the College Journalism Network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/earth-day-2021\">\u003cstrong>National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day 2021\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 21-23 – Multiday, Free Virtual Events\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nWhen you think of NASA, you might think of astronauts and missions to Mars. But NASA also has a variety of missions that focus on studying Earth, from sea level rise to hurricanes. NASA’s three-day Earth Day virtual event extravaganza features: Live presentations and chats with NASA Earth science experts; an interactive kid-friendly science fun zone with coloring and activity sheets; and Meet a Scientist videos. Plus, you can find out how you can be a scientist for NASA. There’s also an online scavenger hunt to kick off #GrowForLaunch, a chance to learn about plants grown in space and how you can start your own “space” garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandzoo.org/programs-and-events/earth-day\">\u003cstrong>Oakland Zoo\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Earth Day Events\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22-25 – 10 a.m.-3:30p.m., Timed Tickets Required, $24-$20, Free Virtual Activities\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nCelebrate animals and the planet and learn how to take action against the illegal wildlife trade. All guests must reserve a ticket for a specific date and entry time. Event highlights include an in-person scavenger hunt that will focus on animals that need saving from illegal wildlife trade. The zoo also has several online activities to help you act for the planet from the comfort of your own home, such as learning what plants attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://browercenter.org/wsff-2021\">\u003cstrong>The David Brower Center\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Wild and Scenic Film Festival Earth Day 2021\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>April 22 – 7 p.m., Tickets Required, General $25, Student $15, Group Rates Available \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe Wild and Scenic Film Festival, organized by Citizens Climate Lobby Alameda County, the David Brower Center, Earth Island Institute, Green the Church, and Communities for a Better Environment, is hosting a virtual Earth Day screening with films that tell extraordinary stories of local and global front-line communities fighting for environmental justice and restoration. After the live event on the 22nd, all films will be available on-demand from April 23-27. Included with every ticket is an on-demand bonus session featuring five films about threatened wildlife and efforts to protect their habitats and save them from extinction. Get $5 off with this special code: WSFFDBC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman-.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1974013\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman-.jpg\" alt=\"earthday_wsf\" width=\"800\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman-.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman--160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/EarthDay_WSFF-dbc-page-Elephant-and-Woman--768x490.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Included with every ticket is an on-demand bonus session featuring five amazing films about threatened wildlife and efforts to protect their habitats and save them from extinction. \u003ccite>(Wild and Scenic Film Festival)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Check your local event listings for additional Earth Day related community events in your neighborhood. And be sure to bookmark \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayareascience.org\">bayareascience.org\u003c/a> for year-round science and environment events and festivals. Below is a reminder of a few things you can do to make every day Earth Day, courtesy of the \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/earthday.html\">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1974014\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2.jpg\" alt=\"NOAAA\" width=\"800\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Earthday-infographic_NOAA2-768x481.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]If you have a green thumb, spring in the Bay Area marks the harvesting of lemons and oranges, onions and garlic, and greens like arugula, kale and mustard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what are those squiggly marks crisscrossing your arugula and lemon tree leaves?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973522\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1919px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973522\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920.jpg 1919w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The mining from a \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> fly larva leaves a pattern of discoloration in a wild mustard leaf growing at UC Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Those curlicues are the work of leaf miners, tiny insect larvae that tunnel through leaves. The mines they carve out might be a whitish tan or light gray. They can be neatly serpentine or converge and have a blotch-like appearance, depending on what insect made them. Many different flies, butterflies and moths lay eggs on the leaves of citrus, vegetables and ornamental plants that grow into leaf miners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re ubiquitous in the Bay Area,” said James Farr, a \u003ca href=\"http://acmg.ucanr.edu/Contact_Us/\">master gardener\u003c/a> with Alameda County who answers residents’ home gardening questions. “Every year we have leaf miners on my citrus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mines that appear in May and June on the lemon, lime and orange trees he grows in his home near Pleasanton are created by the larvae of moths that lay their eggs on the citrus leaves. The trails can appear as early as April if the weather is warm enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973581\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973581\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A citrus leaf miner left a trail of poop behind as it ate inside a lemon leaf. \u003ccite>(Jack Kelly Clark/UC Statewide IPM Program)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you were to pull back the outermost layer of a leaf, you’d see a translucent larva about a fourth of an inch long tunneling through the leaf’s spongy layer. Their mines, shiny films with a neat, dark stripe of poop inside, might be the best evidence that moths are living in a garden. Leaf miner adults can be infamously elusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been growing for 20 years,” he said, “and I can’t say that I’ve ever seen the adult moth, just the tracks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaf miners rarely do enough damage to even come close to killing a plant, but they make individual leaves inedible. If given enough time, however, a leaf miner can be particularly damaging to vegetables that are harvested specifically for their leaves. But don’t worry if you mistakenly eat a larva — it won’t make you sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_tunnels_into_leaf_1.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973528\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_tunnels_into_leaf_1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Munch, munch, munch … a fly larva begins tunneling into a leaf with its mouthparts. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For leafy greens, which can be grown during most of the year in the Bay Area, miners can show up anytime a plant has enough mature leaves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among crops that will be ready to harvest in the summer, like tomatoes, beans, chard and squashes, leaf miner larvae may start appearing in late May. The same goes for ornamental plants like verbena, begonias and impatiens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most backyard gardeners only need to remove the damaged leaves by hand. Farr warns against using insecticides on these pests. Since leaf miners are tucked inside the leaf, chemicals aren’t very effective and can hurt beneficial pest predators like wasps, spiders and ladybugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gardeners with a greenhouse or large numbers of plants can use parasitic wasps to control the leaf miners. The female wasp will inject her eggs into the larvae. Once hatched, the young wasps feed on the leaf miners from the inside out, utterly wiping out a miner infestation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re voracious killers of larvae,” Farr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One leaf miner that Bay Area gardeners might find in their arugula is the larva of a fly called \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em>. It’s related to — and looks a lot like — the fruit fly you might find buzzing around your ripe bananas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But where the common fruit fly in our kitchen sucks the vinegary liquid produced by decaying fruit and plants, \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> flies feed on fresh, bitter-tasting leafy plants like arugula and kale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1921px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973525\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1921\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920.jpg 1921w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1921px) 100vw, 1921px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> fly sits on an \u003cem>Arabidopsis\u003c/em> leaf at UC Berkeley. Researchers there keep their flies on \u003cem>Arabidopsis\u003c/em> because it is a simple plant that has been studied in detail and is well suited for experiments. And the fly larvae love feeding on its small, soft leaves. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The chemicals that give these leafy greens their bitter taste are precisely their defense mechanism against insects. The characteristic peppery taste that some of us love in arugula is a result of compounds called isothiocyanates, which are toxic to most insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973527\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_tunnels_inside_leaf.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973527\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_tunnels_inside_leaf.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surrounded on all sides by its food, a \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> larva crawls inside its mine. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> flies have evolved to tolerate low levels of these toxic chemicals. As a result, they have the plants practically to themselves. But this comes at a cost. Over the past 14 million years, the flies have had to develop better and better defenses to thwart the plants’ stronger and stronger toxins. Flies and plants are in an “evolutionary arms race” with each other, said \u003ca href=\"http://www.noahwhiteman.org/\">Noah Whiteman\u003c/a>, a professor of evolutionary biology at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Losing one’s footing in the battle means you go extinct,” he said, “so everyone’s running to stay in the same place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whiteman and his colleagues are studying how \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> larvae are able to survive inside leaves that are toxic to other insects. As a biology student at UC Berkeley in 2019, I helped maintain the \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> fly colonies in Whiteman’s lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way in which the flies deal with the plant’s toxic chemicals is by laying their eggs on the parts of the plant that are the least toxic. To do this, female flies perform a taste test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_finishes_making_hole_w_ovipositor.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973524\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_finishes_making_hole_w_ovipositor.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Before she lays an egg in a leaf, a female \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> fly digs a hole into it to taste the sap. \u003ccite>(Julianne Peláez/UC Berkeley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A female fly digs into a leaf using her saw-toothed reproductive organ, called an ovipositor, and makes a hole known as a stipple. Sap pools into the stipple and the fly sucks it up with her mouthparts. She is drinking to feed herself, but also to test how much toxin is in the leaf. If the concentration of toxin isn’t too high, she will lay a single egg in the leaf. If not, she’ll continue sampling on this leaf or move on to a new leaf until she finds one that is suitable for her offspring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973523\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_drinks_sap_from_stipple.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973523\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_drinks_sap_from_stipple.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A female fly samples the sap that’s pooled in the hole she just dug, which is called a stipple. Researchers believe this taste test helps her find the least toxic spot for her offspring. \u003ccite>(Julianne Peláez/UC Berkeley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Whiteman looked at which leaves the flies were laying eggs on, he found that the flies chose older leaves, which contain lower levels of toxins compared to new leaves. The plant puts more energy into protecting its new leaves from pests by pumping more toxins into them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because the toxins are expensive to make,” Whiteman said, “the plant invests more in the new leaves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since older leaves deteriorate with age, younger ones are especially valuable. They may become the primary leaves through which the plant transforms the rays of the sun into food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973526\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This larva will have to turn over a new leaf! Often when leaves are small and close to each other, a larva can move to a new one once it has eaten through the first one. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A few days after an egg is laid, a larva hatches and begins to tunnel through the leaf. It munches on the abundant plant tissue surrounding it. It grows as it mines along the length of the leaf, eventually reaching the size of a sesame seed, leaving a hollowed-out trail in its path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s best to harvest your leafy greens early, lest the flies beat you to it — unless you’re looking for a little extra protein in your salad.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Leaf Miner Fly Babies Scribble All Over Your Salad | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>If you have a green thumb, spring in the Bay Area marks the harvesting of lemons and oranges, onions and garlic, and greens like arugula, kale and mustard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what are those squiggly marks crisscrossing your arugula and lemon tree leaves?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973522\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1919px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973522\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920.jpg 1919w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Mine_in_leaf_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The mining from a \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> fly larva leaves a pattern of discoloration in a wild mustard leaf growing at UC Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Those curlicues are the work of leaf miners, tiny insect larvae that tunnel through leaves. The mines they carve out might be a whitish tan or light gray. They can be neatly serpentine or converge and have a blotch-like appearance, depending on what insect made them. Many different flies, butterflies and moths lay eggs on the leaves of citrus, vegetables and ornamental plants that grow into leaf miners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re ubiquitous in the Bay Area,” said James Farr, a \u003ca href=\"http://acmg.ucanr.edu/Contact_Us/\">master gardener\u003c/a> with Alameda County who answers residents’ home gardening questions. “Every year we have leaf miners on my citrus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mines that appear in May and June on the lemon, lime and orange trees he grows in his home near Pleasanton are created by the larvae of moths that lay their eggs on the citrus leaves. The trails can appear as early as April if the weather is warm enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973581\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973581\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/Jack_Kelly_Clark_UC_I-LP-PCIT-LV.005_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A citrus leaf miner left a trail of poop behind as it ate inside a lemon leaf. \u003ccite>(Jack Kelly Clark/UC Statewide IPM Program)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you were to pull back the outermost layer of a leaf, you’d see a translucent larva about a fourth of an inch long tunneling through the leaf’s spongy layer. Their mines, shiny films with a neat, dark stripe of poop inside, might be the best evidence that moths are living in a garden. Leaf miner adults can be infamously elusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been growing for 20 years,” he said, “and I can’t say that I’ve ever seen the adult moth, just the tracks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaf miners rarely do enough damage to even come close to killing a plant, but they make individual leaves inedible. If given enough time, however, a leaf miner can be particularly damaging to vegetables that are harvested specifically for their leaves. But don’t worry if you mistakenly eat a larva — it won’t make you sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_tunnels_into_leaf_1.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973528\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_tunnels_into_leaf_1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Munch, munch, munch … a fly larva begins tunneling into a leaf with its mouthparts. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For leafy greens, which can be grown during most of the year in the Bay Area, miners can show up anytime a plant has enough mature leaves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among crops that will be ready to harvest in the summer, like tomatoes, beans, chard and squashes, leaf miner larvae may start appearing in late May. The same goes for ornamental plants like verbena, begonias and impatiens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most backyard gardeners only need to remove the damaged leaves by hand. Farr warns against using insecticides on these pests. Since leaf miners are tucked inside the leaf, chemicals aren’t very effective and can hurt beneficial pest predators like wasps, spiders and ladybugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gardeners with a greenhouse or large numbers of plants can use parasitic wasps to control the leaf miners. The female wasp will inject her eggs into the larvae. Once hatched, the young wasps feed on the leaf miners from the inside out, utterly wiping out a miner infestation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re voracious killers of larvae,” Farr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One leaf miner that Bay Area gardeners might find in their arugula is the larva of a fly called \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em>. It’s related to — and looks a lot like — the fruit fly you might find buzzing around your ripe bananas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But where the common fruit fly in our kitchen sucks the vinegary liquid produced by decaying fruit and plants, \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> flies feed on fresh, bitter-tasting leafy plants like arugula and kale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1921px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973525\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1921\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920.jpg 1921w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_on_Arabidopsis_leaf_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1921px) 100vw, 1921px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> fly sits on an \u003cem>Arabidopsis\u003c/em> leaf at UC Berkeley. Researchers there keep their flies on \u003cem>Arabidopsis\u003c/em> because it is a simple plant that has been studied in detail and is well suited for experiments. And the fly larvae love feeding on its small, soft leaves. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The chemicals that give these leafy greens their bitter taste are precisely their defense mechanism against insects. The characteristic peppery taste that some of us love in arugula is a result of compounds called isothiocyanates, which are toxic to most insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973527\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_tunnels_inside_leaf.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973527\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_tunnels_inside_leaf.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surrounded on all sides by its food, a \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> larva crawls inside its mine. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> flies have evolved to tolerate low levels of these toxic chemicals. As a result, they have the plants practically to themselves. But this comes at a cost. Over the past 14 million years, the flies have had to develop better and better defenses to thwart the plants’ stronger and stronger toxins. Flies and plants are in an “evolutionary arms race” with each other, said \u003ca href=\"http://www.noahwhiteman.org/\">Noah Whiteman\u003c/a>, a professor of evolutionary biology at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Losing one’s footing in the battle means you go extinct,” he said, “so everyone’s running to stay in the same place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whiteman and his colleagues are studying how \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> larvae are able to survive inside leaves that are toxic to other insects. As a biology student at UC Berkeley in 2019, I helped maintain the \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> fly colonies in Whiteman’s lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way in which the flies deal with the plant’s toxic chemicals is by laying their eggs on the parts of the plant that are the least toxic. To do this, female flies perform a taste test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_finishes_making_hole_w_ovipositor.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973524\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_finishes_making_hole_w_ovipositor.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Before she lays an egg in a leaf, a female \u003cem>Scaptomyza\u003c/em> fly digs a hole into it to taste the sap. \u003ccite>(Julianne Peláez/UC Berkeley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A female fly digs into a leaf using her saw-toothed reproductive organ, called an ovipositor, and makes a hole known as a stipple. Sap pools into the stipple and the fly sucks it up with her mouthparts. She is drinking to feed herself, but also to test how much toxin is in the leaf. If the concentration of toxin isn’t too high, she will lay a single egg in the leaf. If not, she’ll continue sampling on this leaf or move on to a new leaf until she finds one that is suitable for her offspring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973523\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_drinks_sap_from_stipple.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973523\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_fly_drinks_sap_from_stipple.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A female fly samples the sap that’s pooled in the hole she just dug, which is called a stipple. Researchers believe this taste test helps her find the least toxic spot for her offspring. \u003ccite>(Julianne Peláez/UC Berkeley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Whiteman looked at which leaves the flies were laying eggs on, he found that the flies chose older leaves, which contain lower levels of toxins compared to new leaves. The plant puts more energy into protecting its new leaves from pests by pumping more toxins into them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because the toxins are expensive to make,” Whiteman said, “the plant invests more in the new leaves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since older leaves deteriorate with age, younger ones are especially valuable. They may become the primary leaves through which the plant transforms the rays of the sun into food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1973526\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/04/DL807_Scaptomyza_larva_on_top_of_leaf_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This larva will have to turn over a new leaf! Often when leaves are small and close to each other, a larva can move to a new one once it has eaten through the first one. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A few days after an egg is laid, a larva hatches and begins to tunnel through the leaf. It munches on the abundant plant tissue surrounding it. It grows as it mines along the length of the leaf, eventually reaching the size of a sesame seed, leaving a hollowed-out trail in its path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s best to harvest your leafy greens early, lest the flies beat you to it — unless you’re looking for a little extra protein in your salad.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To find its place in the shade! Each hollowed-out seed is home to a head-banging moth larva, just trying to survive the harsh Sonoran Desert sun.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>What if you spent most of your life in near darkness, surrounded by the same walls, eating the same food, all alone?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s life inside a Mexican jumping bean… and that’s just how these creatures like it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re the same jumping beans you find in markets all over Mexico and exported worldwide. But they’re not something you’d want to eat. They aren’t beans at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re seeds of this scraggly shrub. It primarily grows in Mexico, in the mountains of the Sonoran Desert. There are three of them that make up this fruit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these sections have a stow-away – a tiny moth larva that burrowed into the seed while it was still on the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The larva devours the inside of the seed, hollowing out its new pad to make room for its growing body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next 8-10 months our squirmy friend lines the walls with a comfy layer of silk. Just enough air and moisture sneak in through tiny holes in the seed walls. It’s a cozy life. Except for the sweltering desert sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That heat can dry out and kill our sweet little larva. So, of course, it starts jumping. A few hops out of the sun can mean the difference between life and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>ADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For further information about Mexican jumping bean ecology and the life cycle of the Mexican jumping bean moth, \u003ca href=\"https://idtools.org/id/leps/tortai/Cydia_deshaisiana.htm\">check out this factsheet\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/plaug97.htm\">this informative site with some frequently asked jumping bean questions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Hu, a researcher at Georgia Tech (whose lab footage we used in our episode), \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22573786/\">studied the locomotion of Mexican jumping beans\u003c/a>, suggesting \u003ca href=\"https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/lets-make-robots-from-everything-even-mexican-jumping-beans\">we may be able to use their ways of getting around to help us design small spherical robots\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily, it’s got wheels – well sort of. The seed’s shape – with two flat sides and one curved – even allows the jumping beans to travel uphill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside, the larva is working hard. With its back legs, it grabs onto the silk lining and thrashes its head against the seed wall. The force topples the seed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers think these headbangers aim themselves in the right direction using a finely-tuned sense of temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out this experiment. One side of the pan is warmed by a heat lamp, the other cooled by an ice pack. Over time, the larvae move away from the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not always a smooth trip. If the seed gets damaged, the larva springs into action, repairing holes with a dense patch of silk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the larva can’t stay in its comfort zone forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With sharp mandibles, it cuts a circular door in the seed wall. But it doesn’t open it. It’s doing its future self a favor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s done it turns into a pupa. And then transforms into an adult moth. It simply pushes itself through the pre-cut exit door – which is handy, because now its mandibles are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The liberated moth has mere days, maybe a few weeks, to quickly mate and lay eggs before it dies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after all, freedom isn’t really what this animal lives for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most of life, it’s totally fine being a young larva trapped inside a seed, just hoping – and hopping – for a place in the shade.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these sections have a stow-away – a tiny moth larva that burrowed into the seed while it was still on the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The larva devours the inside of the seed, hollowing out its new pad to make room for its growing body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next 8-10 months our squirmy friend lines the walls with a comfy layer of silk. Just enough air and moisture sneak in through tiny holes in the seed walls. It’s a cozy life. Except for the sweltering desert sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That heat can dry out and kill our sweet little larva. So, of course, it starts jumping. A few hops out of the sun can mean the difference between life and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>ADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For further information about Mexican jumping bean ecology and the life cycle of the Mexican jumping bean moth, \u003ca href=\"https://idtools.org/id/leps/tortai/Cydia_deshaisiana.htm\">check out this factsheet\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/plaug97.htm\">this informative site with some frequently asked jumping bean questions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Hu, a researcher at Georgia Tech (whose lab footage we used in our episode), \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22573786/\">studied the locomotion of Mexican jumping beans\u003c/a>, suggesting \u003ca href=\"https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/lets-make-robots-from-everything-even-mexican-jumping-beans\">we may be able to use their ways of getting around to help us design small spherical robots\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily, it’s got wheels – well sort of. The seed’s shape – with two flat sides and one curved – even allows the jumping beans to travel uphill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside, the larva is working hard. With its back legs, it grabs onto the silk lining and thrashes its head against the seed wall. The force topples the seed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers think these headbangers aim themselves in the right direction using a finely-tuned sense of temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out this experiment. One side of the pan is warmed by a heat lamp, the other cooled by an ice pack. Over time, the larvae move away from the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not always a smooth trip. If the seed gets damaged, the larva springs into action, repairing holes with a dense patch of silk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the larva can’t stay in its comfort zone forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With sharp mandibles, it cuts a circular door in the seed wall. But it doesn’t open it. It’s doing its future self a favor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s done it turns into a pupa. And then transforms into an adult moth. It simply pushes itself through the pre-cut exit door – which is handy, because now its mandibles are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The liberated moth has mere days, maybe a few weeks, to quickly mate and lay eggs before it dies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after all, freedom isn’t really what this animal lives for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most of life, it’s totally fine being a young larva trapped inside a seed, just hoping – and hopping – for a place in the shade.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "in-central-california-sea-otters-feast-on-purple-urchins-and-thats-good-for-kelp",
"title": "Kelp, Sea Otters and Urchins. Who's Eating Who in Monterey Bay",
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"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">Marine scientists have observed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949757/massive-california-kelp-decline-linked-to-ocean-heat-wave-voracious-sea-urchins\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">massive decline\u003c/span>\u003c/a> of California’s underwater kelp forests in recent years. Studies have linked the die-off to a host of factors including an ocean heat wave, a deadly sea star virus, and an influx of voracious kelp-eating sea urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Kelp’s long flat leaves and bulbous stems provide habitat for marine mammals, fish and invertebrates in tidal regions along California’s coast. In many regions where kelp once flourished, the ocean floor is now carpeted with spiny purple sea urchins and there’s no kelp to be found. Scientists call these zones the urchin barrens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">A new study out of UC Santa Cruz reveals more about the disappearance of California’s kelp forests, finding the leafy green seaweed is faring better in places where sea otters, a natural urchin predator, are thriving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973221\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973221\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most of the kelp forest ecosystem in Northern California has been replaced by urchin barrens dominated by purple sea urchins. \u003ccite>(Katie Sowul/CDFW)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Several studies have documented the collapse of the kelp ecosystem in California. The story goes something like this: A giant, warm-water “blob” first observed by scientists off the Washington coast in 2013 combined with an El Nino weather event from the south resulted in a prolonged marine heatwave in California from 2014-16. Kelp thrives in colder tidal waters, which have the nutrients it needs to survive. Faced with warmer water, the kelp essentially starved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The historically hardy plant, which can grow up to 2 feet per day, could have bounced back from the heat wave, but for a disease that that nearly eradicated sunflower stars along the West Coast. This large, 24-limbed starfish feeds on purple sea urchins; without stars around, urchin populations swelled and changed their typical hunting behavior. Instead of merely grazing on fallen kelp leaves, the urchins began gobbling up the kelp’s stalks and seed pods as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In Northern California, satellite images have revealed a roughly 95% decline in kelp forest canopy as a result of these events. But in Central California waters, kelp has fared somewhat better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The Central Coast saw a similar urchin outbreak in 2014, says Joshua Smith, a Ph.D. candidate and kelp forest researcher at UC Santa Cruz. “But what was different here was that instead of having this widespread kelp deforestation, we actually had this patchy mosaic of kelp forests interspersed with these patches of sea urchin barrens\u003ci>,” \u003c/i>he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973227\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973227\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A healthy forest of giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, in Monterey Bay. \u003ccite>(Michael Langhans)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Smith says this unique phenomenon gave his group an opportunity to look closer at the factors driving the kelp decline and its potential for recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/content/118/11/e2012493118\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, published this week in \u003cspan class=\"s2\">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003c/span>, links the presence of sea otters in Monterey Bay to patches of lush, healthy kelp forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">Smith called Monterey Bay “sea otter country,” pointing out more of the species inhabited the area than any other in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">\u003ci>“\u003c/i>This is a sea otter country,” Smith said. “We have the highest abundance of sea otters here in Monterey Bay than anywhere else in the state\u003ci>.”\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">Sea otters, like sunflower stars, are a natural predator of sea urchins. \u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">“The key finding of what this actually means is that otters are so important for this ecosystem because they are maintaining these remnant patches of kelp forests,” Smith said, “And those patches of kelp are the ultimate source populations to help replenish those barren patches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">The study shows that the sea otter population in Monterey Bay grew in the wake of the urchin boom, with an increased survival rate for pups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">While scientists can’t say for sure, the lack of sea otters and other urchin predators north of the San Francisco Bay may help explain why Northern California’s kelp forests have suffered more than on other parts of the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973226\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973226\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Purple sea urchins feeding on kelp. \u003ccite>(Michael Langhans)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">Sea otters haven’t been spotted on the North Coast since the 1800s, says Meredith McPherson, a UC Santa Cruz marine scientist who recently published \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-01827-6\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">a separate study\u003c/span>\u003c/a> on Northern California’s kelp decline. “From what we observed in the satellite data from the last 35 years, the kelp had been doing well without sea otters as long as we still had sunflower stars. Once they were gone, there were no urchin predators left in the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">Without natural predators, McPherson says, scuba divers are helping maintain what’s left of the region’s kelp forests by plucking out interloping urchins. But while ocean temperatures and nutrient levels have normalized some since the 2014-16 heat waves, she says kelp haven’t seen any significant rebound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">“There seems to be some evidence that some patches of kelp have reemerged in certain areas, but it’s nothing to the extent that we would expect from the historical data,” she said. “The concentrations of urchins are still really high and [are] creating the strong grazing pressure on any kind of recovery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">McPherson says while the urchin barrens persist, a full-scale kelp recovery is unlikely. Even without kelp to eat, urchins have shown resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">“That’s where some people have used the term zombie urchin,” Smith said. “These urchins are remarkable in that they can persist in this starved state in the sea urchin barrens for years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">Smith’s study revealed that otters largely ignore urchins in the barrens, as they lack the nutritional value of those that have kelp to forage on. Scientists say another environmental event will likely be needed to reduce urchin populations and tip the scales in favor of kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">“A number of things could take out the urchins.” Smith said. “It could be urchin disease or it could be a bottom-scouring swell that physically wipes sea urchins off the reef.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">In the meantime, otters may be key to kelp’s chance for a long-term recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Kelp, Sea Otters and Urchins. Who's Eating Who in Monterey Bay | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">Marine scientists have observed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949757/massive-california-kelp-decline-linked-to-ocean-heat-wave-voracious-sea-urchins\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">massive decline\u003c/span>\u003c/a> of California’s underwater kelp forests in recent years. Studies have linked the die-off to a host of factors including an ocean heat wave, a deadly sea star virus, and an influx of voracious kelp-eating sea urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Kelp’s long flat leaves and bulbous stems provide habitat for marine mammals, fish and invertebrates in tidal regions along California’s coast. In many regions where kelp once flourished, the ocean floor is now carpeted with spiny purple sea urchins and there’s no kelp to be found. Scientists call these zones the urchin barrens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">A new study out of UC Santa Cruz reveals more about the disappearance of California’s kelp forests, finding the leafy green seaweed is faring better in places where sea otters, a natural urchin predator, are thriving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973221\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973221\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/urchin-barren-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most of the kelp forest ecosystem in Northern California has been replaced by urchin barrens dominated by purple sea urchins. \u003ccite>(Katie Sowul/CDFW)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Several studies have documented the collapse of the kelp ecosystem in California. The story goes something like this: A giant, warm-water “blob” first observed by scientists off the Washington coast in 2013 combined with an El Nino weather event from the south resulted in a prolonged marine heatwave in California from 2014-16. Kelp thrives in colder tidal waters, which have the nutrients it needs to survive. Faced with warmer water, the kelp essentially starved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The historically hardy plant, which can grow up to 2 feet per day, could have bounced back from the heat wave, but for a disease that that nearly eradicated sunflower stars along the West Coast. This large, 24-limbed starfish feeds on purple sea urchins; without stars around, urchin populations swelled and changed their typical hunting behavior. Instead of merely grazing on fallen kelp leaves, the urchins began gobbling up the kelp’s stalks and seed pods as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In Northern California, satellite images have revealed a roughly 95% decline in kelp forest canopy as a result of these events. But in Central California waters, kelp has fared somewhat better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The Central Coast saw a similar urchin outbreak in 2014, says Joshua Smith, a Ph.D. candidate and kelp forest researcher at UC Santa Cruz. “But what was different here was that instead of having this widespread kelp deforestation, we actually had this patchy mosaic of kelp forests interspersed with these patches of sea urchin barrens\u003ci>,” \u003c/i>he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973227\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973227\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Healthy-Kelp-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A healthy forest of giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, in Monterey Bay. \u003ccite>(Michael Langhans)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Smith says this unique phenomenon gave his group an opportunity to look closer at the factors driving the kelp decline and its potential for recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/content/118/11/e2012493118\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, published this week in \u003cspan class=\"s2\">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003c/span>, links the presence of sea otters in Monterey Bay to patches of lush, healthy kelp forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">Smith called Monterey Bay “sea otter country,” pointing out more of the species inhabited the area than any other in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">\u003ci>“\u003c/i>This is a sea otter country,” Smith said. “We have the highest abundance of sea otters here in Monterey Bay than anywhere else in the state\u003ci>.”\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">Sea otters, like sunflower stars, are a natural predator of sea urchins. \u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">“The key finding of what this actually means is that otters are so important for this ecosystem because they are maintaining these remnant patches of kelp forests,” Smith said, “And those patches of kelp are the ultimate source populations to help replenish those barren patches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">The study shows that the sea otter population in Monterey Bay grew in the wake of the urchin boom, with an increased survival rate for pups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">While scientists can’t say for sure, the lack of sea otters and other urchin predators north of the San Francisco Bay may help explain why Northern California’s kelp forests have suffered more than on other parts of the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973226\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973226\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/Urchin-on-Kelp-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Purple sea urchins feeding on kelp. \u003ccite>(Michael Langhans)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">Sea otters haven’t been spotted on the North Coast since the 1800s, says Meredith McPherson, a UC Santa Cruz marine scientist who recently published \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-01827-6\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">a separate study\u003c/span>\u003c/a> on Northern California’s kelp decline. “From what we observed in the satellite data from the last 35 years, the kelp had been doing well without sea otters as long as we still had sunflower stars. Once they were gone, there were no urchin predators left in the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">Without natural predators, McPherson says, scuba divers are helping maintain what’s left of the region’s kelp forests by plucking out interloping urchins. But while ocean temperatures and nutrient levels have normalized some since the 2014-16 heat waves, she says kelp haven’t seen any significant rebound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">“There seems to be some evidence that some patches of kelp have reemerged in certain areas, but it’s nothing to the extent that we would expect from the historical data,” she said. “The concentrations of urchins are still really high and [are] creating the strong grazing pressure on any kind of recovery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">McPherson says while the urchin barrens persist, a full-scale kelp recovery is unlikely. Even without kelp to eat, urchins have shown resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">“That’s where some people have used the term zombie urchin,” Smith said. “These urchins are remarkable in that they can persist in this starved state in the sea urchin barrens for years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">Smith’s study revealed that otters largely ignore urchins in the barrens, as they lack the nutritional value of those that have kelp to forage on. Scientists say another environmental event will likely be needed to reduce urchin populations and tip the scales in favor of kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">“A number of things could take out the urchins.” Smith said. “It could be urchin disease or it could be a bottom-scouring swell that physically wipes sea urchins off the reef.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p4\">In the meantime, otters may be key to kelp’s chance for a long-term recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>Female aphids are the matriarchs of a successful family operation — taking over your garden. But don’t lose hope; these pests have some serious predators and creepy parasites looking to take them down. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Got a plant? There’s probably an aphid for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re a nightmare for anyone growing veggies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are thousands of types, with all kinds of looks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they seem to pop up overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before you know it they’re everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ugh!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pierce leaves and stems with their stylet, and suck out sugary sap, leaving the plant yellow and wilted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nAdditional Resources\u003c/p>\n\u003cli>Entomologist \u003ca href=\"https://entomology.ucdavis.edu/people/ian-grettenberger\">Ian Grettenberger\u003c/a> studies agricultural pests at UC Davis.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://cemerced.ucanr.edu/about/contact/?facultyid=26917\">Jhalendra Rijal\u003c/a> is an integrative pest management advisor with UC Cooperative Extension in Modesto, Calif.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Information about garden and landscape pests like \u003ca href=\"http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7404.html\">aphids\u003c/a> comes from the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM).\u003c/li>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While they’re not particularly fast or well-armored … aphids are highly skilled at one thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making babies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the time they give birth to live young instead of laying eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s different from most other insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aw. She’s got her mother’s eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An aphid mom can push out five or six nymphs a day, sometimes more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she doesn’t need to find a mate to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the time, aphids just clone themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see the eyes of her clones growing inside her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And here’s the really wild part …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her babies are born already pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a week or two, they’ll start giving birth to clones of their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why it only takes a single aphid to infest your greenhouse or garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the buffet starts getting crowded and it looks like their food might run out, aphids switch gears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They produce a different kind of clone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See those light gray shoulder pads on the one on the right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They unfurl into wings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yup, winged clones called alates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They look different, but they’re still genetically identical to their mothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they’re ready, the alates take to the air to search out new plants to colonize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A gathering this big attracts some hungry party crashers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like this ladybug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So some aphids strike a deal … with ants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ants treat aphids like dairy cows, looking after them and guarding them from predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When these ranchers are thirsty, they tap on the aphids with their antennae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But instead of milk, these ant ranchers are looking for a tall drink of sweet aphid honeydew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the sugary waste that comes out of an aphid’s uh, backside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So is there anything that can stop these aggravating … endlessly self-replicating pests?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some growers use oils or insecticides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others sic even more predators on them, like lacewing larvae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or even unleash parasites like these wasps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The female wasp uses her sharp ovipositor to inject an egg into the slow-moving aphids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the wasp egg inside hatches, the larva eats and eats, hollowing out its host and turning it into a little mummy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s ready, the adult wasp chews its way out to start the cycle again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These tiny mummies are a gruesome sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re one that lets gardeners breathe a sigh of relief.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nAdditional Resources\u003c/p>\n\u003cli>Entomologist \u003ca href=\"https://entomology.ucdavis.edu/people/ian-grettenberger\">Ian Grettenberger\u003c/a> studies agricultural pests at UC Davis.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://cemerced.ucanr.edu/about/contact/?facultyid=26917\">Jhalendra Rijal\u003c/a> is an integrative pest management advisor with UC Cooperative Extension in Modesto, Calif.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Information about garden and landscape pests like \u003ca href=\"http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7404.html\">aphids\u003c/a> comes from the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM).\u003c/li>\n\u003cp>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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},
"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"on-the-media": {
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
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