Co-evolution and interdependence

While reading an article in the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, on the co-evolution of Ants and Large Blue Butterflies, I had this mental image come into my mind. As the article was about the pheromones that both critters produce, I had this picture in my mind of the scientists going around sniffing Ants and Caterpillars. I wish I could draw as I would have drawn a cartoon of it.

However this posting is not about my warped state of mind, but the importance of understanding the co-dependence of species within a habitat. Further, as I have just been talking to someone via email about this in relation to the conservation potential within the habitats of my local area, I thought it apposite.

While most people will know of the food chain, we probably all did that at school. But the way that its taught is misleading as its better to think of the interactions more like a web rather than a chain.

Locally we have Green Woodpeckers in the wood, they are even breeding, as a very rare bird that’s great news. The only reason that they are here and able to breed is because we also have Wood Ants. During the breeding Season the woodpeckers rely on the ants lave for food. Thus if there were no ants there would be no Woodpeckers, further, the ants need to have trees like Larch and Pine so they can utilise the needles to build its formicary. That obviously is an example of an interdependence chain. Yet when you start adding species like the fungi that need pine or larch and the mammals that feed on the fungi and each of these chains start to spread out to form a multi-layered web not of feeding but of interdependence.

When the objective is just observation, one of the best ways of making an initial assessment of the health of an ecosystem is by looking at or for the top predators in that habitat. Often this will be the birds of pray, as in the UK we do not have any of the top mammal predators here. But as I have previously written about, in Yellowstone National Park in the US, the health of the whole of the reserve is dependent upon the wolf packs. However, it is not as simple as just introducing native predators to a habitat, to ensure the health and biodiversity in any environ, you have to start at the bottom.

This is why in the UK we have to manage lands carefully to conserve what we already have and to provide the conditions needed to enable any expansion of species. Taking my local wood as an example it has a fairly rich mosaic of habitats, in spite of it being a plantation wood; there are enough broad leaf trees in the mix to have kept much of the wildlife there. However, while there are plenty of species their, there are gaps where via previous neglect and poor management, important species have disappeared. Even in my short time here I have witnessed the loss of the Red Squirrel from Chopwell Wood.

Having scoured the wood for the last three months, I can find no sign at all of them.

Yet with careful thought, planning and execution our local woods could become the real haven for wildlife it needs to be. We are lucky as in and around the wood we have about ten percent of the species that our government has recognised as needing special protection, with careful habitat creation and management we could expand that to nearly twenty percent. As the list contains over one thousand species, that would make our local woodland an impressive haven for wildlife.

There are parts of the wood that are very boggy, this aspect of the mixtures of habitats means that we already have plants like the Marsh Orchid growing in profusion. Yet by careful interventions we could provide sites for many other rare orchids. This could then attract some of the endangered bees and other invertebrates too.

The key is understanding the interdependence of the whole of the ecology and not carrying out work in isolation. Especially if it involves sniffing ants!


The Picture is of the Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fushsii (Try saying that after a few pints)