Worms are great for your garden, but a recent study shows that non-native species may be wreaking havoc on orchids in forests along the east coast. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Think twice before you order earthworms to improve the soil of your garden. A group of scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences recently published a study that shows the damage non-native earthworms, who creep their way into forests thanks to human activities like fishing and gardening, may cause to one of the world’s favorite flowers, the orchid.

Goodyera pubescens, one of the most common orchid species found in forests around northeast America. Photo courtesy of SERC.

Of more than 20,000 orchid species, the study focused on Goodyera pubescens, a tall, erect plant with white flowers common in America’s east coast forests, including those around the SERC campus in Edgewater, Maryland. The problem with earthworms, the scientists found, is that they reduce Goodyera pubescens’ numbers by ingesting their seeds, which are the size of dust specks and fall into the soil surrounding orchids when the plants flowers. As earthworms munch through the dirt, they swallow the microscopic seeds, preventing germination in two ways: Either the ingestion process kills the seeds before they make it out the earthworm’s other end, or the seeds survive ingestion but are reintroduced into the soil too deeply to access upper-level fungi nutrients required for growth.

The research team, made up of Melissa McCormick, Kenneth Parker and Dennis Whigham at SERC and Katalin Szlavecz at Hopkins, measured the effect of both possibilities over six weeks. They determined almost 80 percent of the seeds ingested in this time period could no longer grow, and almost a third were buried too deeply to flourish. By a conservative estimate, the study concludes, older forests—120 to 150 years old—around SERC would lose 49 percent of Goodyera orchid seeds to earthworm ingestion in a year, and younger forests—50 to 70 years old, where non-native earthworms flourish—would lose 68 percent.

These numbers do not suggest that earthworms are inherently bad for orchids. On the contrary, native earthworms keep the plants’ ecosystems in balance, and allow plenty of room for growth. What the numbers do show, explains McCormick, is that the unchecked introduction and proliferation of new earthworm species in forests has a dramatic effect that defies the conventional wisdom that earthworms always are great for soil health.

“Certainly where earthworms belong, when they’re in their correct system, they have a really major role in how the forest functions,” McCormick says. “The problem is when you get different species in there that are functioning very differently. People need to be a little bit more aware of what species sort of belong here and which ones don’t, and just be aware that they’ve having effects other than just how well your garden is doing. Yes, it’s certainly great for your garden, but it’s got a cost.”

That cost may stretch far beyond orchids. As part of a forest ecosystem, orchids actually are relatively insignificant, McCormick says; they are beautiful, but don’t contribute much. Yet earthworms also might disrupt the distribution and diversity of the fungi on which the orchid seeds feed, she explains, which would have a much more fundamental effect on the forest, because many plants depend on them. Orchids in this case would be like canaries in coal mines.

“Orchids are a way of seeing the health of an ecosystem,” says McCormick. “They depend on this very complicated interlinked system, where they depend on things above ground and other species below ground as well, so it’s an indication that the ecosystem is pretty healthy when they’re there.”

When they aren’t there, she cautions, the loss of beautiful flowers may be the least of our concerns.

Hurricane Sandy heads north. Courtesy of the National Hurricane Center

UPDATE, Tuesday, October 30, 2012: Museums and the National Zoo remain closed, but Metro rail and bus service will open at 2 on a limited Sunday schedule. All museums and the National Zoo will open tomorrow on time on their regular schedules.

UPDATE: The National Zoo has announced it will remain closed through Tuesday, October 30, due to conditions from hurricane Sandy. The Smithsonian museums also will remain closed in both Washington, D.C. and New York City. Metro rail has announced that all rail and bus service will be shut down also on Tuesday.

UPDATE: The Smithsonian Institution has announced that all museums and the National Zoo in both the Washington, D.C. area and in New York City will be closed tomorrow, Monday, October 29, due to Hurricane Sandy.

The following statement was just released: “In New York, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center is closed, due to the impending storm. The Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum continues to be closed for construction. The Smithsonian will provide further information if the storm affects the Washington, D.C. museums.”

In addition, the National Portrait Gallery reports that the  1812: Portraits of War Edgar P. Richardson Symposium,  scheduled for tomorrow has also been cancelled.

With reports rolling in that the D.C. area might be headed for a collision with Hurricane Sandy, the Smithsonian is hard at work preparing for the weather. The Washington Post’s weather gang has been following the storm and reports that, “analyses suggest this storm may be unlike anything the region has ever experienced.” But don’t worry, the Smithsonian has it covered.

With so many adorable animals, including the two-week old dama gazelle who made her debut on Wednesday, the Zoo has a big task but one caretaker Juan Rodriguez says they are ready.

Rodriguez, who works with the pandas as well as other outdoor exhibits, says, “My area is a little bit more susceptible to damage than other areas, like the Elephant House and the Great Ape House. For the houses, everything’s all indoors, so they’re sheltered.” As the storm heads further north, Rodriguez says the team will keep an eye on the weather and assess the situation each morning.

“We’ll probably just leave them inside if the winds are above 50 miles an hour or so,” says Rodriguez, adding that, “If they’re near trees and a tree falls or a branch falls and breaks the fence line, some of those areas have no secondary containment, so we need to keep them inside.” Animals with indoor-outdoor access, like the fishing cats and clouded leopards, will likely have to stay inside if the weather takes a turn for the worse.

But Rodriguez says, the animals don’t tend to mind. “As long as they’re fed at the same time, they’re happy.” In fact, the toughest transition for the animals tends to be the time change in the spring that sets their eating schedules back an hour.

Up at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, the staff are taking precautions for the weekend. With 2,650 acres of land to manage, SERC also has waterfront to manage. Press officer Kristen Minogue says they’ve been moving boats, including large research crafts off docks and out of the water for safekeeping. “On a brighter note,” says Minogue, “our nutrient lab said they’re looking forward to finally getting some rain because they’ll be able to take stream data again. Their nitrogen research has been on hold since the streams stopped flowing in the summer.”

Meanwhile, the Institution remains optimistic that the museums will be able to stay open. Last August, when Hurricane Irene threatened severe weather, the museums prepared with 1,000 sandbags to prevent flooding, backup produce and dry feeds for Zoo animals and plywood, metal and nylon bands to secure the Castle’s turrets and chimneys.

UPDATE: This post was updated on October 28 after the announcement was made to close all of the museums and the National Zoo for the impending storm.

2,650 acres of wildlife give researchers plenty to study. Courtesy the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Just a short drive to the east, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) sits surrounded by trees, wetland and water–a wilderness perfect for studying everything from climate change to earthworms. While most of us work indoors at desks, Smithsonian ecologists call the 2,650-acre campus along the Chesapeake Bay their office. This Saturday, visitors will have the chance to get up close and personal with the work those scientists do at the annual Family Fall Day.

Labs, demonstrations and boat rides make for the perfect fall adventure. Courtesy the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

“I was drawn to this research site because it’s among the world’s most thoroughly studied wetland ecosystems,” explains biogeochemist Pat Megonigal. “It offers a wealth of data and the infrastructure I need to conduct a range of experiments on global change.”

In addition to the local research on marine life in the bay, SERC also hosts scientists around the world, from Belize to Alaska. Topics range from tropical mangroves to microscopic parasites that turn male crabs into females. The center is also known for its ongoing research into climate change, including an ongoing study begun in 1987.

“The main features are our research labs,” says Karen McDonald, outreach coordinator for the center. “It’s kind of unique because people actually get to meet world-class researchers.”

Megonigal’s work will be presented at one of the five laboratory demonstrations on Saturday. The labs include a look at forest canopy, trace elements, biogeochemistry, North American orchids and aquatic bottom dwellers viewed through a remote-contol camera. And of course, everyone’s favorite boat, Richard Lee, will be offering hour-long tours along the water. With plenty of opportunities for hands-on learning, including crabbing and seining in the bay, there’s something for everyone.

“I always look forward to the diversity of activities,” says McDonald. “There’s always something different every time you come.”

Registration required, here. Saturday September 15, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

How much is the Hope Diamond worth? Ask Smithsonian.

Our inquisitive readers are rising to the challenge we gave them last month. The questions are pouring in and we’re ready for more. Do you have any questions for our curators? Submit your questions here.

How much is the Hope Diamond worth? — Marjorie Mathews, Silver Spring, Maryland

That’s the most popular question we get, but we don’t really satisfy people by giving them a number. There are a number of answers, but the best one is that we honestly don’t know. It’s a little bit like Liz Taylor’s jewels being sold in December—all kinds of people guessed at what they would sell for, but everybody I know was way off. Only when those pieces were opened up to bidding at a public auction could you find out what their values were. When they were sold, then at least for that day and that night you could say, well, they were worth that much. The Hope Diamond is kind of the same way, but more so. There’s simply nothing else like it. So how do you put a value on the history, on the fact it’s been here on display for over 50 years and a few hundred million people have seen it, and on that fact it’s a rare blue diamond on top of everything else? You don’t. – Jeffrey E. Post, mineralogist, National Museum of Natural History

What’s the worst impact of ocean acidification so far?- Nancy Schaefer, Virginia Beach, Virginia

The impacts of ocean acidification are really just starting to be felt, but two big reports that came out in 2011 show that it could have very serious effects on coral reefs. These studies did not measure the warming effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but rather its effect of making the ocean more acidic when it dissolves in the ocean. Places where large amounts of carbon dioxide seep into the water from the sea floor provide a natural experiment and show us how ocean waters might look, say, 50 or 100 years from now. Both studies showed branching, lacy, delicate coral forms are likely to disappear, and with them that kind of three-dimensional complexity so many species depend on. Also, other species that build a stony skeleton or shell, such as oysters or mussels, are likely to be affected. This happens because acidification makes carbonate ions, which these species need for their skeletons, less abundant.

Nancy Knowlton, marine biologist
National Museum of Natural History

Art and artifacts from ancient South Pacific and Pacific Northwest tribes have similarities in form and function. Is it possible that early Hawaiians caught part of the Kuroshio Current of the North Pacific Gyre to end up along the northwest coast of America from northern California to Alaska? — April Amy Croan, Maple Valley, Washington

Those similarities have given rise to various theories, including trans-Pacific navigation, independent drifts of floating artifacts, inadvertent crossings by ships that have lost their rudders or rigging, or whales harpooned in one area that died or were captured in a distant place. Some connections are well-known, like feather garment fragments found in an archaeological site in Southeast Alaska that appear to have been brought there by whaling ships that had stopped in the Hawaiian Islands, a regular route for 19th-century whalers. Before the period of European contact, the greatest similarities are with the southwest Pacific, not Hawaii. The Kushiro current would have facilitated Asian coastal contacts with northwestern North America, but would not have helped Hawaiians. The problem of identification is one of context, form and dating. Most of the reported similarities are either out of their original context (which can’t be reconstructed), or their form is not specific enough to relate to another area’s style, or the date of creation cannot be established. To date there is no acceptable proof for South Pacific-Northwest Coast historical connections that predates the European whaling era, except for links that follow the coastal region of the North Pacific into Alaska.

William Fitzhugh, archeologist
Natural History Museum

Chesapeake Bay research from 2006, photo courtesy of SERC

Yesterday and today, our friends at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, 25 miles east of Washington, D.C., have been busily preparing for the wrath of Hurricane Irene. The 2,800-acre research site is on the Rhode River, a sub-estuary of the Chesapeake Bay, where a storm surge of two to three feet is predicted.

According to Liza Hamill, SERC’s safety officer, boats are either being removed from the docks and hoisted up to safe areas on land or attached to a hurricane mooring, all loose equipment on site is being secured, sandbags are being placed around doors and rotating facilities teams are gearing up to monitor the center around the clock. All, as one might expect. But what threat does the storm surge pose to ongoing experiments there?

Well, for one, research biologist Mike Goodison had an important decision to make about a seawater pump that provides a constant flow of water from an area near the site’s docks to a wet lab 75 yards away, where tanks of live oysters, crabs and clams are held.  The storm surge could destroy the seawater pump, but if he moved is somewhere safe, he would have to cut off that aspect of the experiments. Ultimately, he says, “It’s a $10,000 pump, so I can’t have it going underwater.” He will be removing the pump this afternoon and probably not reinstalling it until Monday.

So, what does that mean for the animals? “Normally, researchers keep their animals in tanks and the water constantly moves through, rather than being like a static fish tank,” says Goodison. “Basically people now, this morning, are going to have to start hoarding water and storing water to go with their animals. They are just going to have to turn their animal holding tanks into static systems until Monday.” Air pumps will continue to provide oxygenated water for the animals, as long as nothing happens to the backup power that is in place. “We have backup generators to supply power for everything at SERC. So if the power goes out, which we fully anticipate it will, then the backup generators will supply the electricity for some of the necessary infrastructure like the air pumps and keep the animals alive through the weekend,” says Goodison.

Luckily, the wet lab itself is about 20 feet above the water level, so it would have to be an incredibly high storm surge to cause damage or severe flooding to it.

About a mile across the water as the crow flies, or a 10-minute drive, from SERC’s main campus, is the Smithsonian Global Change Research Wetland, which is the site of four major experiments right now. The longest running of the experiments began nearly 25 years ago and is aimed at understanding the effects of elevated carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on plant communities. “The other three experiments all sort of build on that theme in order to make the experiments more and more realistic with respect to our forecast of the near future,” says Patrick Megonigal, an ecosystem ecologist and deputy director of SERC. One, for instance, looks at how elevated nitrogen levels in the water, in addition to raised carbon dioxide levels in the air, affects plants (essentially, simulating a polluted Chesapeake Bay). Another adds predicted sea level rise to those variables. And, another still, looks at how these global change factors will affect the ability for an invasive species called common reed to spread throughout native marshes.

For the experiments, open-top chambers, or plastic cylinders, that raise the carbon dioxide concentration around the plants to the level forecasted for 2100, are installed in the wetland. “Because the site is a tidal marsh, it is low in elevation, and it is right at the front lines for both storm surges. The stature of the plants is fairly low, which means the wind whips across it as well,” says Megonigal. “Our structures are hardy, but they are not built for hurricanes.” He and his colleagues have been dismantling parts of the chambers that might catch the wind and cause their destruction, and they are shutting down the carbon dioxide supply to the experiments. “We run it roughly from May through October,” he says. “Hopefully, it is a relatively small interruption.”

Megonical and his team are bringing in expensive instruments called infrared gas analyzers and raising other pieces of equipment above what they think might be the high water mark in the marsh.

“Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best,” says Hamill. That is the plan.

Inspecting the "cabinet of curiosities," 2010, by Michael Barnes, Smithsonian Institution Archives.

(Ed. Note — This is our 1000th post. More to come later, but thanks to everyone for getting us this far!)

It’s a Big Year for Natural History—We’ve mentioned that the Natural History Museum turns 100 this year before, but as part of the celebration, they’ve been giving us a peek into their diverse staff by posting video interviews of them on the museum’s Web site. Some are already available to watch, including interviews with photographer Chip Clark and Carole Butler, Chief of Collections for NMNH. My personal favorite is a video of some NMNH staff members tasting a smorgasbord of crunchy crickets, cockroach cookies and other buggy delicacies.

Labor Day Has Come and Gone… To ring in the start of school, the Ocean Portal blog recommends getting passionate about exploration. They’ve compiled a list of the best known ocean explorers, from Robert Ballard, who explored the Titanic shipwreck, to John Walsh and Jacques Piccard, the only two humans ever to descend the depths of the Challenger Deep, part of the Mariana Trench.

What Would You Have Asked? A couple weeks ago, we announced that several Smithsonian museums would be taking part in the Twitter-hosted Ask a Curator Day. Whether or not you participated, Pushing the Envelope has posted the best questions and answers asked of their curator at the event. What’s the rarest stamp at the Postal Museum? Do curators get scared being in museums at night? What letter from throughout American history do you wish the museum had?

First the Bureau of Bureaucracy, and Now… The cabinet of curiosities! Aside from alliteration, what curiosities are contained in this new furnishing acquired by the Smithsonian Institution Archives American Art Museum last fall? According to Bigger Picture, the cabinet’s doors open to reveal rows of 35 millimeter slides of Smithsonian artifacts and buildings. The cabinet recalls the mass of images (likely over three million) in the Smithsonian Institution Archives from before the dawning of the digital age. Though it is not currently on view, Bigger Picture does have some photos to share.

Cholesterol Through the Ages—The second installment of a two-part post on Oh Say Can You See features everyone’s (least?) favorite heart-stopper. An intern at the National Museum of American History describes the trials and tribulations of telling the story of cholesterol through documents and objects of the past.

This post has been updated. The “cabinet of curiosities” is not among the collections of the American Art Museum. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. ATM regrets the error.

Bugs Bunny Stamps, courtesy of National Postal Museum

What’s Up, Doc? His buck teeth and long ears may be timeless, but Bugs Bunny has reached a ripe old age. It was 70 years ago yesterday that everybody’s favorite “wascally wabbit” first popped his head out of his rabbit hole and posed the notorious aforementioned question to arch nemesis Elmer Fudd. Arguably the most famous cartoon character of all time, Bugs Bunny ushered in the Loony Tunes era that enraptured adults and children alike. Complete with slippery banana peels, plummeting planes and extensive carrot chomping, the Smithsonian Libraries blog posted a 1943 video of Bugs, alongside other links of interest, in tribute to his life in television.

Introducing the Art-O-Matic: Following the ban on cigarette vending machines in the late 1990s, artist Clark Whittington co-opted the machine and re-purposed it as an art dispenser for cigarette-sized, original works of art. The “Art-O-Matic” took off, and now Whittington oversees 83 over 90 such machines, one of which just arrived at the Luce Foundation Center for American Art. According to Eye Level, at five dollars per work, you can get your own miniature art straight out of this 60-year-old vending machine. Works include everything from jewelry to sculptures to collages, all handmade by an international array of artists.

It is an exciting time… As a result of a recent effort to broaden accessibility and searchability of all the Smithsonian has to offer, Smithsonian has produced a prototype of the Smithsonian Commons, a centralized online forum for the “Smithsonian research, collections and communities.” Featured recently by We Love DC, the Commons will open the doors to a global audience interested in the Smithsonian who aren’t necessarily able to travel to the museums in Washington, D.C. Explore, vote and comment on the prototype in order to shape the final product!

For lucky iPhone and Android owners, the Collections Search Center (CSC) has recently enhanced their mobile web portal, so that you can find any object in the collections that strikes your fancy while on the go. Simply visit the CSC Web site on your phone, and you’ll get to see the new and improved version.

Holy Mangrove! This past Monday, the National Museum of Natural History’s Ocean Portal blog celebrated International Mangrove Action Day. If you missed out this year, you can still listen to  a podcast of Dr. Candy Feller of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), in Edgewater, Md., speaking with SERC ecologist Dr. Dennis Whigham about the importance of these twisted, tropical plants. If you did take a moment out of your day for the mangroves, they invite you to share your celebration with other readers.

Former Maryland State Sen. Bernie Fowler, wearing coveralls and a cowboy hat, leads a group of residents into the water during a wade-in event last year. Photo courtesy of the SERC.

On Tuesday, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and the Environmental Protection Agency reached a settlement that requires the agency to create certain regulations by specific dates to reduce pollution across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Some of those regulations will take place within the next few years; some won’t be in place until 2025.

It was a victory for locals like former Maryland State Sen. Bernie Fowler, who grew up along the shore of Broome’s Island, wading and swimming in the inlet waters along the Bay. As a young man, Fowler, who stands about six feet tall, could wade into the water until it reached his mid-chest, when he’d stop and look down to see crabs and other critters swimming around his feet. Today, at 86, Fowler says he can go just barely wade in more than two feet before he can no longer see the bottom of the river.

Fowler first noticed the water’s declining health in the 1960s and 1970s, when he owned Bernie’s Boats, a fleet of about 60 oyster boats. The aquatic vegetation began to wither, and the water was getting cloudy.

Soon, Fowler became a county commissioner, and spoke to the residents of southern Maryland about the need to preserve the region’s water; about his experience wading into the river. A friend suggested instead of just talking about wading into the water, Fowler should bring some people down to the river and wade with them himself.

So in 1988, five years after he became a state senator, Fowler dug out the coveralls he waded in as a young man and used them to lead local residents into the water. He stopped when he could no longer see his feet, and when he came back out, somebody measured the watermark on his clothing.

Soon, other communities began to catch on, and 23 years later, the tradition has amassed a wealth of informal data about the area’s water quality. This year the tradition will continue in 20 different Maryland communities, starting this Saturday at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s open house in Edgewater, Maryland. The open house is from 10 to 3; Fowler, himself, will lead the wade-in at 11:30 a.m.

“It was a way to engage the people here in a very meaningful way,” Fowler said. “Not everyone understands the scientific terms of what’s happening to the water, but if you wade out into the river, you understand the message.”

In past years, as many as 150 people have joined Fowler at each of the wade-ins, some in coveralls, like Fowler; some in bathing suits or trousers; and some, like the governor and state representatives, wear shorts, Fowler said.

The water has been worse in recent years, Fowler said. Last year, he was only able to walk into the water until he reached about 27 inches.

The best period in recent memory was in the early 1990s, Fowler said, right after a bill was passed that set regulations for the area’s wastewater treatment plants. During that time, he could wade in about 44.5 inches.

“The grass was coming back, transparency of water was better,” Fowler said. “I was just jubilant. It looked like we turned a corner.”

Fowler says now that a legally enforceable commitment is in place, he’s jubilant again—and when residents wade-in during the next 15 years, they are bound to see improvements.

“The waters here are an economic engine just waiting to be restarted,” Fowler said. “If we can get this water quality cleaned up and get our aquatic life back not only will it be a healthier situation for aquatic life and the humans who live around the watershed, but the water men will be able to make a living again.”

If you can’t make the wade-in this Saturday, there are other wade-ins scheduled across the region, including the 23rd anniversary of the wade-in Fowler has traditionally held on the second Sunday of each June, this year at at 1 p.m. on June 13 at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum.

Stop by to get your coveralls a little dirty, and watch a “jubilant” Fowler speak about restoring the area’s aquatic bounty.

The Amphisolenia quadrispina, which Hedrick saw in a sample sent from the Bay of Bengal, is a species of phytoplankton rare on this side of the Atlantic. Courtesy of Sharyn Hedrick.

When we recently heard about a “huge” find made by Sharyn Hedrick, a phytoplankton taxonomist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland, we wanted to see it—except, we couldn’t. The phytoplankton, Amphisolenia quadrisipina, that turned up in Hedrick’s lab, while really large by phyto standards, was only about 600 to 700 microns: just smaller than the tip of a needle.

Curious about what exactly these microscopic creatures do for the ocean, I recently spoke with Hedrick.

Tell me more about the type of phytoplankton, Amphisolenia quadrispina,  you saw in samples sent from the Bay of Bengal. Why was it so different for you?

It was originally identified in 1907. . . and again in 1933. . ., but this is the first time I actually saw it in one of my samples. For a taxonomist its like hitting the Lotto. I’ve looked at samples from the coastal areas of Belize and Florida for over 20 years and never run across one. I believe they are rare; at least on the western side of the Atlantic. It is prolific in that [particular] area, I can tell you that. I don’t know who eats it, but it must be very large, I would say

When the average person thinks about marine life, phytoplankton probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind. But they produce a good amount of the earth’s oxygen—about half of the total amount produced by all plant life. Could you explain what they are, and what role they play in the ocean?

Phyto is a Greek word that means plant. So the phytoplankton group comprises all of the plant-like microscopic organisms in the water. If the planet was completely dissolved of phytoplankton, nothing in the river, or in the bay, or in the ocean would survive because these guys are the basis of the food chain.  They’re eaten by all kinds of things, actually, but in the Chesapeake Bay area,  they’re usually eaten by zooplankton, which are considered animals, and then by larvae to fish and larvae to crabs. Phytoplankton are what they survive on, and those things work their way up on the food chain until we end up having them on our plate. There are thousands of species, freshwater, brackish and salt water species, and each one is different even if only slightly. Diatoms, for instance, can’t propel themselves, so they’re at the whim of the tide current and the wind and they can’t do anything but go with the tide. Dinoflagellates have flagellas, which help them go in any direction they want. Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton also take carbon dioxide out of the water and release oxygen as a by-product. That’s a big job for them.

Can phytoplankton be dangerous?

Sometimes. People are generally familiar with water that turns green from large mats of stringy, slimy goo. That is caused usually by Spirogyra or Ulothrix phytoplankton in freshwater ponds, which can go from farm pond to farm pond on the feet of birds and geese. They are also [associated] with red tides or mahogany tides. This is caused by several different species depending on the area. That’s just the color of the chlorophyll that that species have. When I go out on the water everyone here can tell you I’m a fanatic with colors on the water and what kind of phytoplankton they mean. They think I’m nuts, but I’m usually right.

Here on the Chesapeake our main culprit is Prorocentrum minimum. It is a dinoflagellate. It’s hazardous when the population reaches a non-sustainable level and starts to die off because the cells sink to the bottom, leaving oxygen-depleted waters, which in turn kill off fish. In some parts of the world this species is reported to have a poison that they excrete to kill off fish. There are only a handful of dino species that excrete poisons that affect people. A few years ago there was a large bloom of Dinophysis acuminata on the lower Potomac River that caused shellfish poisoning in people. The shellfish beds were shut down until the bloom was over. So these blooms can hurt the economy, too.

You studied marine biology at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. How did you become interested in phytoplankton?

I lived on Cape Cod while I was going to school at Bridgewater State College and one morning I got up and the news on the local Cape Cod station said there were 34 whales stranded down in Wellfleet, off the coast of Cape Cod, not very far from where I lived. So I called my professor and he called a couple of other people and we got permission to come down and see what we could do for the whales. But by the time we got down there they had already been euthanized. They landed in an marsh and there was no way they would let a backhoe in to move them. So, our job was to cut up  the whales  and let the pieces be carried out to the Bay, which was really so very tragic.

I was later curious about what the pieces of whale meat that were left in the tidal pond would do, and what kind of nutrients they would add. I got permission to go into the marsh and do a study in there. I worked in there a couple of months collecting samples and right away, as soon as I started looking at the samples, I realized, “Oh my God. There are all these diatoms [a species of phytoplankton] in here, these are fantastic!” And my natural history professor gave me a book about them. I spent the next six months identifying phytoplankton, and that in turn got me my first job as a phytoplankton taxonomist: I went to work for the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. All because of those whales.

You have two short non-fiction stories published. One is called “Potheads,” about the stranding of the Pilot whales in Wellfleet on Cape Cod,  where you first “fell in love” with diatoms. What’s the story behind the title?

That’s what those whales are called; that’s the common name. They have this huge melon on their head. If you look at a humpback whale they’re very smooth—they’re bumpy with knobs and barnacles, but there’s no shape to the head. It’s very flat. Potheads like the Pilot whales are different. If you can picture a cartoon whale, they have a big head and they stand there and smile. Potheads are just like that. They have a huge head and it’s called a melon right on top, and supposedly it helps them with sonar and helps them navigate where they’re going. The name goes back to whaling days, they were named potheads a long time ago, long before the pilot whales came along.

Geoffrey Parker, his colleagues and a team of citizen scientists have tagged more than 20,000 trees at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Photo courtesy of SERC.

Geoffrey Parker has been tracking the growth of trees since September 8, 1987—his first day working as a forest ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland.

Parker estimates that he and his colleagues have made about 250,000 measurements of tulip poplars, sweetgums, American beeches, southern red oaks and others in 55 designated plots. The plots are stands of trees that range in age from five to 225 years. Since the plots represent the forest at different stages of development, the researchers have been able to use them to create a “chronosequence” from which growth predictions can be made.

However, according to a study by the scientists in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than 90 percent of the trees monitored grew two to four times faster than they predicted. And it’s a recent phenomenon. They have found that the forest, on average, is growing by an additional two tons per acre annually—an amount that translates to a new tree with a diameter of two feet each year.

Parker and his team attribute the growth spurt to climate change, particularly the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, higher temperatures and longer growing seasons. According to measurements taken at SERC over the past 22 years, carbon dioxide levels at the scientific facility have risen 12 percent, mean temperature has increased by almost three-tenths of a degree and 7.8 days have been tacked on to the growing season.

“We suspect this is a widespread trend,” says Parker. “Other researchers may have similar data but have not yet examined it in the way we have.”

The finding raises new questions. Parker wonders if the accelerated growth is affecting the trees’ cycling of carbon, water and nutrients and how much longer this growth spurt can continue.

Nocturne (1879-80) by James McNeill Whistler. Image courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art.

Friday, October 16: The Woman Behind the New Deal

Come on out to the American Art Museum where Kirstin Downey is on board to tell you about Frances Perkins, an economist and social worker who, as FDR’s Secretary of Labor, shaped the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the National Labor Relations Act, the Social Security Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. A book signing will follow the lecture. Free. American Art Museum, 7:00 PM

Saturday, October 17: Owl Prowl

Owls have a reputation for being rather intelligent animals—but how wise are you to these creatures of the night? Come on out to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and spend an evening prowling for owls along the Chesapeake Bay shoreline while learning all about how they live. Cost is $5 per person. Registration is strongly recommended, although walk-ins will be allowed to go on the tour if there is still room. To reserve a spot today, please call 443-482-2300. Also note that the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center is about a 30-minute drive outside of the Washington, DC area. For directions, go to this website. The Owl Prowl will begin at the Reed Conservation Center. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 8:00-9:30 PM

Sunday, October 18: The Texture of Night: Etchings by James McNeill Whistler

Some of you may be familiar with the cheap-but-intellectual pickup line, “Would you like to come up and see my etchings?” Well, if you’re James McNeill Whistler, you’ve got etchings worth seeing. Come on over to the Freer and immerse yourself in the world created by Whistler’s nighttime visions of London, Amsterdam and Venice. After viewing the art, head down to the ImaginAsia classroom where the younger members of your family can participate in an art activity where the little ones will get an opportunity to create their favorite real or imaginary nighttime scene. Free. Freer, 2:00 PM

For more information on events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums, check our companion website, goSmithsonian.com, the official visitor’s guide to the Smithsonian.

Improving Education (2000). Image courtesy of the National Postal Museum.

Back to school season is upon us! Students are spazzing over course schedules and the teachers they have to expand their minds. Teachers are sure to wonder what young minds they get to contend with over the course of the next school year and parents are prepping for an onslaught of PTA meetings and kids needing a helping hand with their homework.

That said, let the Smithsonian give you a helping hand with its open buffet of online educational resources. There’s a little something for everybody here–teachers, students and parents—to enhance the experiences in the classroom and to keep young minds active at home. So, for your convenience, here is a listing of educational materials and hopefully they’ll help make this year’s return to the classroom an exciting—and enriching—experience.

American Art Museum

Picturing the 1930s is an immersive multimedia experience that provides a vision of what life was like during the Great Depression. Browse a virtual movie theater where you can watch interviews with artists working during the period, view artwork, listen to radio programs, watch short films and even create a documentary movie of your own. You can find this and other media-rich learning aids on the Classroom Activities site. For grades 6-12.

Teachers: get your pupils involved in the world of art with Student Podcasts. This program invites students to discuss pieces in the museum’s collection. For grades K-12.

Educators are also encouraged to browse the museum’s Education Resources, a page chock-full of lesson plans and ideas on how to incorporate the arts into the classroom. These guides encompass a wide variety of subjects such as history, science and literature. There are currently 28 guides available, and new guides are added three times a year. For grades K-12.

Environmental Research Center

Check out the Environmental Research Center’s Education and Outreach Programs for a host of hands-on science programs and activities that foster learning experiences in the field as well as in the classroom. If you’re a college undergrad or graduate student, also be sure to check out the Environmental Research Center’s professional training programs. For grades K-12 and collegiate students.

Folkways

Smithsonian Folkways—the Institution’s nonprofit record label—offers a Tools for Teaching website that promotes cultural understanding through a series of lesson plans and education kits. Through studying music, students can enhance their understanding of other subject areas, such as history, geography, language arts and social studies. For grades K-12.

National Air and Space Museum

The Classroom Resources site offers learning guides and online activities that allow you to test your knowledge of the science and history of aeronautics. For grades K-12.

Educators can make use of the museum’s Teaching Resources, which include posters and teaching packets that cover a wide range of topics from how things fly to the structure of the universe. Also be sure to check out Educational Videoconferencing—programs that feature the museum’s staff and volunteers who use artifacts and photographs to teach the history and science of aeronautics. The videoconferences are geared to students in grades 3-5 and grades 8-12.

National Museum of American History

History Explorer is a resource for teachers, students and their families that invites you to investigate the museum’s artifacts and the stories they have to tell. For teachers, there are lesson plans and activities, as well as interactive media, designed to enhance the learning experience. For grades K-12.

Our Story is a resource for parents who would like to expand their child’s classroom experiences at home. This website is chock-full of activities, recommended reading and field trip ideas. For grades K-4.

National Postal Museum

The museum’s Curriculum Guides site offers a host of educational opportunities for students in grades K-12. Not just a means of exploring postal history, these guides will expand your knowledge of history and the visual arts. For grades K-Adult.

Also, be sure to check out Arago, the Postal Museum’s free online guide to the study of philately. Not only for people who are interested in stamp collecting, a host of online exhibits are available that will enhance your understanding of art, science and history. To see how stamps have been used in educational activities—and perhaps to generate some ideas of your own—check out Heroes on Stamps. For grades K-Adult.

National Zoo

Especially for educators, the zoo’s Curriculum Guides site offers a wide range of interdisciplinary student activities. For grades K-12.

If you’re planning a trip to the zoo this school year, be sure to check out the Field Trip Resources site for pre- and post-visit lesson materials and resources, as well as ideas for activities to do during your visit. For grades K-12.

The Smithsonian Biodiversity in the Classroom page will encourage students to explore the natural world and hone their math and science skills with a series of classroom lessons and outdoor activities. For grades 3-6.

Conservation Central, sponsored by FujiFilm, is designed to help kids learn about the importance of conservation and the challenges faced in preserving temperate-forest habitats—home of the Giant Panda. For grades 6-8.

UPDATE: We were remiss to not include the clearinghouse for Smithsonian education materials: SmithsonianEducation.org

The conference will feature museum curators and scientists presenting evidence, explaining the impact of such evidence and talking about the response. Scott Wing, Curator of Fossil Plants at the Natural History Museum, used fossils to estimate carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere millions of years ago and will lead the “Evidence” portion of the Wednesday, September 30th session. Other speakers include Bert Drake, plant physiologist and senior scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Mark Haddon, director of education at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and Don Moore, associate director for animal care at the National Zoo.

Interested in climate change, but not based in DC? Don’t fret. Because it’s an online conference, you don’t have to be anywhere near the Mall to participate. The sessions take place in a virtual meeting room of sorts. Audio from the speaker is broadcast and conference attendees can pose questions to the speaker via a real time chat application. You don’t even have to be available during the conference to watch the sessions. All sessions will be broadcast live and archived on the conference’s Web site for future viewing. Discussion boards and additional resources are on the Web site.

The first conference in the series was held February 4-5 to coincide with the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. All of the resources are still up on the site. In fact, comments are still coming in even though the conference wrapped up half a year ago.

The conference is free and open to everyone. Register now to reserve your spot. Until the conference date, follow researchers, curators and others on the conference’s blog.

Shellfish, like oysters, are especially vulnerable to climate changed-induced ocean acidification. (Free image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user Chris 73.)

In a paper published last month in PLoS One, a team led by ecologist Whitman Miller, showed that the shells of Eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, the jewels of the Chesapeake Bay, will be slightly smaller (16 percent decrease in shell area) and weaker (42 percent reduction in calcium content) in the waters of 2100. The other species tested, the Suminoe oysters from Asia, showed no change in an acidic ocean.

“We are bound to our bodies like an oyster is to its shell,” said Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher.

But that was over 2,000 years ago, long before rising levels of carbon dioxide began to trap heat in our atmosphere and seep into our oceans. As CO2 dissolves into seawater, it is broken down into carbonic acid and hydrogen ions. Hydrogen determines whether a liquid is acidic or basic. The more hydrogen ions that leach into the ocean, the more acidic it becomes.

As more of the green house gas, carbon dioxide, is released, the world’s oceans are slowly becoming more acidic, and shellfish, like oysters are especially vulnerable to this kind of change. An acidic ocean hinders the ability of some species of oyster young to build their shells, scientists with the Smithsonian’s Environmental Research Center found.

According to the scientists, the results suggest that acidification may be tied to a species’ unique evolutionary history, implying that predictions may be more complex than previously thought. “In the Chesapeake Bay, oysters are barely holding on, where disease and overfishing have nearly wiped them out,” Miller says. “Whether acidification will push Eastern oysters, and the many species that depend on them, beyond a critical tipping point remains to be seen.”

Chinese mitten crab

The Chinese mitten crab is one of the ocean’s more fashionable invertebrates. With a sleek four-inch wide shell, a light brown-olive green color, and thick mats of hair on its pair of white-tipped claws, it seems odd that a looker like that would have environmental scientists so concerned.

But the mitten crab, native to East Asia, is slowly invading East Coast waters. It doesn’t pose a physical threat, however, its squarely an ecological matter. Once established, the crab quickly reproduces and soon hundreds are clogging fishing equipment and power plant cooling systems. They can also out-compete local species, like the Maryland blue crab.

Fortunately, we haven’t reached a high-level crab threat yet. Forty-four mitten crabs have been formally identified in the eastern United States since 2006. They were found primarily in the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, and more recently the Hudson River and New Jersey.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center are asking sharp-eyed beachgoers, fishermen and crabbers for help to capture and collect information about the invasive mitten crabs. “At this point we’re trying to understand if they’re here and what that might mean ecologically,” scientist Gregory Ruiz recently told HometownAnnapolis.com.

Though, they’re not the easiest crabs to locate. Mitten crabs live in both freshwater and saltwater,
can burrow underground and are able to leave the water and walk around obstacles while migrating.

If you catch a mitten crab, do not throw it back alive. Note the precise location and date where the animal was found. Take a close-up photo of the crab and send it to SERCMittenCrab@si.edu. If possible, freeze the animal on ice, or preserve it in rubbing alcohol, and call The Mitten Crab Hotline at 443-482-2222.