Chapter 46 9.2 Urban weeds

Life is multiplying and multiplying in Bio2.The ecological bottle is fertile and full of vitality.Most notable among the pups born in Bio2's first two years were the night monkeys, born in the first few months after the system shut down.Two dwarf goats gave birth to five little babies; Osab Island pigs gave birth to seven little piglets; The baby lizard quietly hid under the desert rocks. All the bumblebees died, though.All four hummingbirds also died.A type of coral (40 in total) in the surrounding lake is also going "extinct", with only one remaining.All of the blue-tied finches died while still in transition cages, perhaps the unseasonably cloudy Arizona winter was too cold for them.Linda Leigh, a biologist on board Bio2, was sad. She thought that if they had been released earlier, they might have found a warm hiding place by themselves.At this time, human beings have become remorseful gods.And, there's always the irony of fate.Before the system was closed, three English sparrows sneaked in and became uninvited guests, living happily here.Leigh complained that sparrows were arrogant, loud, even domineering and rude, while blue-ribbon sparrows were graceful, peaceful, and melodious singers.

Stewart Brand once prodded Linda on the phone: "What's the matter with you people? Why don't you go with the flow? Keep the sparrows and forget about the blue-banded finches!" Brand strongly recommends evolution : Find the surviving creatures and let them reproduce naturally.Let the biosphere tell you where you want to go.“I was taken aback when I first heard Stewart say that, but I’ve come to agree with him more and more,” Leigh says frankly. The domineering vines on the desert, the savannah grass on the desert, the ubiquitous ants, and other uninvited creatures. Urbanization leads to the emergence of marginal species.The world today is fragmented into small patches; what remains of wilderness is divided into islands; those species that can thrive are best suited to thrive in the areas between the patches.Bio2, on the other hand, is a condensed collection of various fringes.It contains more ecological margins per unit area than any other place on Earth.But it has neither a so-called heartland nor a dark underground world.Much of Europe, much of Asia, and eastern North America are showing this.Fringe species are opportunists: crows, pigeons, rats and weeds can be found on the fringes of cities around the world.

Lynn Maquilis, outspoken crusader and co-author of the Gaia theory, predicted Bio2's prospects before it shut down."The system will eventually be overrun by 'urban weeds,'" she told me. "Urban weeds" are the animals and plants that thrive on the fringes of human-created patches of habitat, doing whatever they please.And Biosphere 2 is the most typical patchy wilderness.When you finally open the door to Bio2, you'll find dandelions, sparrows, cockroaches, and raccoons everywhere, according to Marquilis' speculation. It is the task of humanity to prevent this from happening."If we don't intervene -- that is, nobody eradicates the overly successful species -- then I believe Bio2 could go in the direction that Lynn Maquilis predicted: eventually become Bermudagrass," Leigh said. And a world of mallard ducks. But because we're doing selective logging, I don't think that's going to happen, at least not in the short term."

Personally, I am skeptical that biomen can manipulate a naturally occurring ecosystem of 3,800 species.For the first two years, the cloud-shrouded desert turned into a misty scrubland -- the humidity was higher than expected, and the grasses loved it.Morning glory vines grow wildly across the rainforest canopy.In order to develop according to their own wishes, these 3,800 species adopted various tactics such as detours, outsmarts, and black-box operations, and gradually dismantled the biosphere man's goal of becoming a "key predator".Species that go with the flow are very resilient.What's more, the right time, the right place, and the harmony of people are all there. How can they go?

Evidenced by the curved-billed mockingbird.One day, an official from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service appeared through the glass window of Bio2.The death of the blue-banded finch was on the TV news, and animal rights activists kept calling his office, hoping that he would perform his duties and come to review to see if the blue-banded finches in Bio2 were captured from the wild and raised. brought there to die.The Biosphereman presented the officer with receipts and other paperwork certifying that the deceased blue-ribbed finch was no more than a caged store pet and that his status was in compliance with Department of Wildlife regulations. "By the way, what other kinds of birds do you have here?" he asked them.

"Now there are only some English sparrows and a mockingbird." "Do you have a license to keep mockingbirds?" "Uh, no." "You should know that captive mockingbirds are against federal law under the Migratory Bird Agreement. If you intentionally captive it, I must serve you a citation." "On purpose? No, you misunderstood. It's a stowaway, and we've tried every means to get him out, and we've tried everything we can think of to trap him. We didn't want him in before, and we don't want him in now. Stay here. It ate our bees, butterflies, and all the insects it could find. Today, there are not many insects left."

Game wardens and biospherians converse face to face on either side of thick airtight glass.Despite their proximity, they need to talk over a walkie-talkie.This fantastic conversation continues.The Biosphere Man said, "Look, even if we got him, we couldn't get him out. We're going to be locked up here for another year and a half." "Oh. Well, I see." The supervisor paused, "Okay, since you didn't fence it up intentionally, I'll give you a license to keep mockingbirds in captivity, and you can open it After the system, release it again." Is anyone willing to bet it never gets out?

Just let it be.Unlike the fragile blue-banded finch, the energetic sparrow and the stubborn mockingbird both fell in love with Bio2.The mockingbird has its charms all its own.In the morning, its beautiful song floats across the wilderness; in the day, it cheers on the "key predators" in labor. The messy creatures that intertwined themselves in Bio2 were all fighting.This is a co-evolving world, and biospherians have to evolve with this world.And Bio2 was purpose-built to test how a closed system could co-evolve.In a co-evolving world, the atmospheric and physical environments in which animals inhabit are becoming more adaptable and more lifelike than the animals themselves.Bio2 is an experimental bench to reveal how the environment dominates the organisms immersed in it, and how organisms in turn dominate the environment.The atmosphere is an extremely important environmental factor. The atmosphere produces life, and life also produces the atmosphere.The results show that Bio2's transparent terrarium is an ideal place to observe the interaction of the atmosphere and life.