Biodiversity comes from the term “biological diversity”, which describes the variety of biological specimen, on Earth at all levels (Faherty). All levels refer to genes, ecosystems and includes the ecological, evolutionary, and cultural processes as well. Many things can cause the loss of biological diversity. These can include natural disasters, new predators and most frequently, a zoonosis (Zoonotic Disease, 2021). 

Zoonosis, also known as zoonotic disease, are caused by zoonotic viruses (Minnesota Dept. of Health, 2019). These viruses cause harmful germs to infiltrate between animals and humans. The illness that follows this virus spreading can cause a range of effects in both species. The spread of these kinds of viruses are particularly scary because the virus can occur in animals that show no symptoms (Faherty). Being unable to detect the virus can increase the spread of the disease exponentially.  

            The origin of the Nipah virus (a neurologic and respiratory disease) is a great example of how the loss of forest habitats can cause the increase in spread of zoonosis. In 1997, an area that was roughly the size of Pennsylvania, was paved down in Indonesia, causing the displacement of fruit bat resources (Zimmer, 2021). This caused the fruit bats population within that area to fly towards other areas in search of food, carrying with them a deadly virus. They eventually settled down in Malaysian orchards and within a couple years, the pigs within the farms around that area began to get sick (What is Nipah Virus, 2020). What was discovered was that the bats that carried the virus, ate fruit that was dropped in that surrounding area. The pigs within those farms would roam the area, eating those pieces of fruit, causing them to get sick. By 1999, those that had worked in the pig farms and slaughterhouses were starting to exhibit symptoms of the Nipah virus (Kurup, 2002). 

            Where is the connection in all these terms and definitions? The loss of biodiversity increases the ability of the zoonotic disease affecting organisms within that environment. Just like with the fruit bats – the loss of their habitat, increased their chance of spreading the disease, therefore increasing the ability of the zoonotic virus to spread (to humans and other animals). What are some ways of preventing this from occurring? How about humans just stop messing with things that have nothing to do with them? The need to clear an area for agriculture, the size of Pennsylvania was fueled by greed and monetary gains. Maybe money is in fact, the root of all evil!

1. Faherty, Jackie. “What Is Biodiversity? Why Is It Important?: AMNH.” Our Research – What Is Biodiversity?, American Museum of Natural History, https://www.amnh.org/research/center-for-biodiversity-conservation/what-is-biodiversity.
2. “Zoonotic Diseases.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 1 July 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/zoonotic-diseases.html. 
3. “Zoonotic Diseases: Disease Transmitted from Animals to Humans – Minnesota Dept. of Health.” Zoonotic Diseases:Disease Transmitted from Animals to Humans (Zoonosis) – Minnesota Dept. of Health, Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division, 5 Nov. 2019, https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/animal/zoo/index.html.
4. Zimmer, Katarina. “Deforestation Is Leading to More Infectious Diseases in Humans.” National Geographic Science, National Geographic, 4 May 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/deforestation-leading-to-more-infectious-diseases-in-humans.
5. “What Is Nipah Virus?” What Is Nipah Virus? Nipah Virus (NIV), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 Oct. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/nipah/about/index.html.  
6. Kurup, Asok MBBS FROM BATS TO PIGS TO MAN: THE STORY OF NIPAH VIRUS, Infectious Diseases in Clinical Practice: February 2002 – Volume 11 – Issue 2 – p 52-57.

Dorothy Lavina Brown (also known as Dr. D) is well known for being the first black, female surgeon from the Southeastern United States (Wikipedia, 2022). From the year 1948 to 1949, Dr. D was appointed to general surgery residency in a racially segregated part of the South (Bourlin, 2021). In 1956, Dr. D was able to land herself a position on the state legislature in Texas, as the first black woman representative. Dr. D is the epitome of the phrase “0 to 100”. 

Dr. D was born on January 7^th, 1919 (Changing the Face of Medicine, 2015) in Philadelphia. She grew up in an orphanage called the Troy Orphan Asylum (later renamed to Vanderhyden Hall) (Bourlin, 2021) from age five months to thirteen years (Changing the Face of Medicine, 2015). At age thirteen, Ms. Brown’s mother managed to reclaim her from the orphanage. Living with her mother was tremendously difficult and Ms. Brown ended up attempting to run away back to the orphanage on five separate occasions. At the age of 15, Ms. Brown enrolled herself into Troy High School, managing to graduate at the top of her class in 1937 (Bourlin, 2021). She eventually graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, in the year 1948.  Dr. D completed a five-year residency at Meharry’s George Hubbard Hospital in 1949, resulting in her successfully securing a position as Professor of Surgery in 1955. The year after that (1956), Dr. D became the first single, adoptive mother in Tennessee (Changing the Face of Medicine, 2015) after she adopted a young, unmarried patient’s child (Bourlin, 2021). These small, yet very remarkable accomplishments helped to equalize the idea of both genders, providing proof that women were intellectually and financially equal to men.  

1. Mitiouchkina, T., Mishin, A.S., Somermeyer, L.G. et al. Plants with genetically encoded autoluminescence. Nat Biotechnol 38, 944–946 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-020-0500-9
2. Bourlin, contributed by: Olga. “Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1919-2004) •.” BLACKPAST, Blackpast.org, 4 Jan. 2021, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/brown-dorothy-lavinia-1919-2004/.
3. “Dorothy Lavinia Brown.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Lavinia_Brown.
4. “Changing the Face of Medicine | Dorothy Lavinia Brown.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 3 June 2015, https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_46.html.

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel virus that has impacted nearly everyone in some way over the last few years. Every day we are bombarded with information about it in the media and on social media. How much of that information is true? How much of that information do we retain anyways? Here are a few questions to test your knowledge on covid 19.

1. How is covid 19 Transmitted?
   1. All of the below
   2. Through touching surfaces
   3. Only through blood and bodily fluids
   4. Through the air 
2. The best way to protect yourself from getting Covid-19 is
   1. All of the below
   2. To wash your hands all of the time
   3. To wear a tightly fitted multi lager mask such as an N95
   4. Spraying lysol on every surface
3. The best place to meet up with your friends or family members is
   1. All of the below
   2. At the local indoor pool 
   3. In a restaurant
   4. In an outdoor park
4. Vaccinated people can get and spread Covid-19
   1. True
   2. False
5. You should avoid visiting
   1. All of the below
   2. People who are sick
   3. Places with poor ventilation
   4. Places with large crowds
6. People of any age and fitness level can die from getting Covid-19?
   1. True
   2. False
7. If you contract Covid-19 you can have long term side effects. Which side effects are known to be possible?
   1. All of the below
   2. Decreased lung function
   3. Swollen extremities
   4. Mental fog
8. If you suspect you have Covid-19 you should?
   1. All of the below
   2. PCR Test
   3. Self Isolate
   4. Monitor your symptoms
   5. Let the people you have been in contact with know

_{Answers in order 1-8: 4,3,4,1,1,1,1,1}

Invasive plants are detrimental to an ecosystem. A way that we combat them is by physically removing the invasive plant – digging it up – when we see it. What should we do with it afterwards? In places where invasive plants are removed there needs to be a system in place to deal with the removed plants. A recent study on water Hyacinth titled: State of the art research on sustainable use of water hyacinth: A bibliometric and text mining analysis, proposes some options. They propose that water Hyacinth will be used for fibres, biofuels, and fertilizers. These options would allow impacted communities to benefit from removing the invasive plant. 

Fibres are used for many things such as plant-based textiles. Common plant-based textiles are cotton, and bamboo fabrics. Currently many textiles that are commonly used are synthetic and made of plastics. Plant-based fabrics made from water hyacinths would be more sustainable.

Biofuels are also a good way to use an invasive plant. Biofuels have lower carbon emissions than fossil fuels. Using biofuels instead of fossil fuels lowers your carbon footprint. Some communities use biofuels as a primary source of energy. Water Hyacinth can be used to make biofuel which would be a great resource for the community. 

A simpler way to use an invasive plant is as fertilizer. You would need to be cautious not to spread the seeds of the plant further. Composting the plants on a large scale would be a good method. Composting is allowing the plants to decay naturally with the help of bugs. Once the plants are broken down the soil like fertilizer can be used to support growing gardens and farms.

There are many ways to use invasive plants. These three methods provide a profitable and sustainable product making them great ways to get a community involved in removing invasive plants.

It is important to understand what plants you are growing in your gardens and yards. Non-native invasive species of plants are often introduced through gardens. As a gardener or a responsible homeowner you should attempt to plant as many native plants as you can. It is important to note that not all non-native plants are invasive. You need to be especially careful not to plant invasive plants.

Invasive plants are plants that outcompete the other plants for resources in the ecosystem. Invasive plants once introduced will rapidly overpopulate the space and smother other plants. They threaten the biodiversity in the ecosystem. The Invasive Species Centre keeps a list on their website of invasive plants in Canada which has nice photos of the plants that you should be looking out for. For example, garlic mustard plants are invasive. The website includes management practices, and information about it. There are many beautiful plants in Ontario that are native. Some of these are garden friendly plants.

Plant identification is also important for people who go outside. Outdoor spaces like forests, parks, and green spaces will usually have a variety of plants growing in them. It is important for you to recognize dangerous plants such as poison ivy.

Plant identification is a useful skill that everyone should have in order to keep themselves safe from dangerous plants and their neighbourhoods and parks safe from invasive plants.

Everyone should watch the Lorax because it gives a great message. The message that the movie conveys is that everyone can help. This message is conveyed in two parts. No one is too small to help save the planet along with that message is the acknowledgement that anything you do no-matter how small can help. 

The focus of this film is empowering the viewers. Through music and an engaging story this film shows how one child can create positive change in a community where change seems impossible. In this movie Ted embarks on a quest to find a real tree. Where Ted lives air is sold in bottles because there are no living plants. The smog in the city of Thneedville is a serious problem.

Smog is a relatable problem. Many cities have lots of air pollution and not very many green spaces. Green space is important. Having biodiversity should be important to everyone. This movie shows now having trees and healthy plants benefits the whole community. Having clean air improves the health of the community. Plants convert carbon dioxide to oxygen which we breathe. Having plants contributes to air quality because of this.

This movie also touches on the concept of wastefulness. People often throw things away to get new ones. Instead of keeping the ones they had just because a better version came out. This is something that many people do.this movie shows the consequences of throwing things away and using single use plastics. Currently many people still use single use plastics and could benefit from watching this film.

The monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria Araucana) is an endangered tree species that is found in the Andean regions of Argentina and Chile and are threatened with deforestation through logging and anthropogenic fires. The female trees produce cones that are pollinated via wind dispersal, that are then dispersed via gravity over short distances and animals over longer distances.

In 2016, Tell et al. published in the paper Large-scale impacts of multiple co-occurring invaders on monkey puzzle forest regeneration, native seed predators and their ecological interactions. This experiment included native seed eaters: Austral Parakeets (Enicognathus ferrugineus) and mice and introduced seed eaters, the latter of which includes wild and livestock mammals. There was a particular interest in learning the combined effects of the seed predators, ‘Are the combined effects equal to the sum of their parts?’ This study is unique in that it compares the independent effect of each exotic mammal and their combined impacts. 

To measure the impact of the invasive species and the native species, 9 introduce mammals were targeted for the experiment, 5 of which were livestock, 4 were wild. They measured the impact before and after the livestock species were brought to graze the area and avoided sites where humans would use the seeds for their own consumption. Evidence of each animals seed predation was used to record their impact which was tied to the number of seeds that remained and the number of seedlings that grew under each female tree. They finally tracked the movements of Austral Parakeets while they were carrying a cone to measure their impact on seed dispersal. 

Austral parakeets and the exotic mammals visited nearly the same number of trees, around 85%, while the mice visited only around 45% of the 516 trees, which is still higher than any individual exotic mammal. The results concluded that the seed and seedling number was negatively impacted at the site of each monkey puzzle tree when exotic species visited them and positively impacted when Austral Parakeets visited them, mice had no clear impact. The impact of the grazing path was found to be increase the number of seeds and seedling before the grazing and lower it after compared to monkey puzzle trees that were not on the grazing path at all. Through Trampling and seed predation, trees that were visited by more than 5 exotic mammals had almost seeds uneaten and no seedlings growing. The Austral Parakeet was found to have moved seeds a larger distance than the tree could disperse them in more than of the 770 observations made, often during which they dropped seeds. 

The regeneration of monkey puzzle tree forests is in jeopardy. The impact of exotic mammals on the ability of the tree to disperse and produce seedlings is hindered by overconsumption. The Austral Parakeet’s success relies on the abundance of monkey puzzle tree seeds and without proper care, the loss of monkey puzzle tree forests can have upstream effects that will decimate the ecosystem. 

References

Tella, J. L., Lambertucci, S. A., Speziale, K. L., & Hiraldo, F. (2016). Large-scale impacts of multiple co-occurring invaders on monkey puzzle forest regeneration, native seed predators and their ecological interactions. Global Ecology and Conservation, 6, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2016.01.001 

My secondary nomination for the film festival was the Serengeti Rules (2019) a 84 minute documentary about several scientists in the 1960s who discover important rules of ecosystem balance through keystone species. The particular section of the movie that sparked my nomination was about Tony Sinclair studying the population boom of wildebeest after a disease was eradicated in fear of the over 1 million wildebeests over grazing the grassland and wreak havoc on the ecosystem. At the same time wild fires were being studied in the Serengeti that were decimating the tree populations which much of the life there depended upon as a habitat and food source. 

The breakthrough in the research was the discovery of the connection to wildebeest population and the frequency of wildfires, They found that the wildebeest population had an inverse correlation with the number of wildfires and their intensity. They also found the population of wildebeest reached its natural limit without any concern of over grazing the grassy savanna. The scientists concluded that by grazing the long, dry, flammable grass, the Serengeti was less susceptible to wildfires. There was an increase in the amount of forest regeneration since this discovery and provide additional habitat for animals like butterflies, giraffes and elephants.

  Wildebeest were discovered to be a surprising keystone species by reducing fire risks, which manages plant succussion. While the movie focuses mainly on animals as a keystone in ecosystems, they all have either an direct or indirect effect on the abundance and evenness of fauna that provides a great example of the complexity and interconnectivity of ecosystems. There does not need to be a direct interaction between organisms for them to respond to one another.