Road Wild Plants

It would be interesting to monitor wild plants that show up on the sides of desert roads in Egypt. They appear in very interesting patterns as if they had been planted deliberately. Their spacing and distribution is striking. It would be interesting to see their dispersion patterns, when do they grow and when do they die out and in which locations they are distributed. It would be nice to see how they get water, is it from the sparse rain or from the humidity caused by human activity or from other sources or a combination of sources and factors. It would also be interesting to check out their species and how such species are distributed and if there exists communities and if there are animals or other organisms that form communities with them.

Do

Take photos of wild plants dispersed on the sides of roads in Egypt.

Microclimates

Variation on Earth

The inclination of Earth on its axis while rotating around itself and the sun creates such variation in seasons. The spherical shape of the earth itself lends to interesting variation on earth. The presence of mountains and different altitudes also helps create even more variation on earth.

Variation can be with time or according to geographic location.

Microclimates

Isolation?

The concept of microclimate gives hope. It allows one to think that despite the destruction, pollution and deteriorating environment taking place globally, yet one can still live in a relative paradise and create his own microclimate and niche environment.

That does not mean that we should disconnect from what's going on around us and leave the earth to sink, as we are all connected and will get affected at the end no matter how 'isolated' we might be. It just means that in parallel with trying to "save the earth" we can still live in relative bliss by enjoying our own blessed microclimates in which we can thrive. Just planning some trees around your home can help you go that direction.

That's why an urban setting where trees are grown can be up to 10 degrees Celsius less in temperature than an adjacent one that has no trees.

Inspiration

The concept of microclimates also provides variation. It provides inspiration that in analogy to microclimates we can find people in urban communities who are living different states of life. The variation in such human communities can be great in a similar way that microclimates create variation. For instance, in a poor neighborhood there could exist some rich people. In an area where disease is rampant there could exist some health people. At a place where ethics have subsides there could exist ethical people. If such variation is lost, ecosystems become fragile and can fail, be destroyed and become replaced with other new ecosystems that allow for more variation and are more resilient.

This variation can perhaps explain the presence of fruits growing out of seasons for Mariam.

Permaculture

The concept of microclimates and variation in small areas can also be used in permaculture to provide for a variety of food in a small area of land.

So, we can find interesting variation, for instance, within Siwa itself at some scattered pieces of land that have springs.

Sea Moderates Temperature

Water from the sea absorbs a lot of heat in contrast to land which absorbs less heat. The land heats and cools very fast compared to the sea. Hence in Alexandria (Egypt) and other coastal cities weather is moderated by the waters in the sea. It can be warm at night and cool during the day.

Manmade Variation

Besides variation created by natural factors, human activity can also lead to a great deal of variation. For instance, during the Eid vacation where a large number of people who are working and living in Cairo (Egypt) go back to their governorates and industry ceases, a great positive variation in the local climates of Cairo shows up. Air pollution rates drop down sharply and the atmosphere becomes much more healthy. I have noticed during the last Eid vacation that birds increased and I believe I've even witnessed a species of bird that I had not been seeing around, it had a pleasant sound that I had not been familiar with earlier. As soon as the Eid vacation came to an end, such pleasant increased variation in species sadly subsided once again.

Climatic Changes

Thoughts

1. Is there any hint of glacial cycles or change of temperature in the Quran?
2. Figs and olives, mentioned in the Quran, do they have anything special with regards to their evolution?
3. The general Western view has been that humans have had a negative impact on earth and the environment. The call has been for attempting to reduce or neutralize, if ever possible, the harmful effect humans have on the environment. The Islamic view, as it shows in the Quran, has a different perspective. The Quran sees humans as either destroyers or carers and reformers. Islam advocates the latter. The Islamic view therefore is that humans not only can reduce or neutralize their negative impact on earth and the environment but can, and should, through their actions, enhance and maintain such environment to become even better!
4. It would be cool if I pay a visit to the tropics! I feel a deep connection to such places.
5. I should go live and teach (ecology) in Sudan!
6. I am against the author's view of historic accidents and that plants are not well adapted to their environments.
7. The lush vegetation that had been present in place of the current deserts in Egypt at the time of Ancient Egyptians, were they a result of climatic cycles? Was their disappearance manmade or natural?
8. Does the concept of succession, popular in permaculture, have anything to do with the succession of plants and their evolution with time in a particular geographical location?

Digest

• "Changes in climate have occurred on shorter timescales than the movements of land masses."
• "Much of what we see in the present distribution of species represents phases in a recovery from past climatic shifts."
• "Changes in climate during the Pleistocene ice ages ... bear a lot of the responsibility for the present patterns of distribution of plants and animals."
• Technology for discovering, analyzing and dating biological remains is becoming more sophisticated particularly by the analysis of buried pollen samples.
• "Techniques for the measurement of oxygen isotopes in ocean cores indicate that there may have been as many as 16 glacial cycles in the Pleistocene, each lasting for about 125,000 years."
• "Each glacial phase lasted for 50,000 to 100,000 years, with brief intervals of 10,000 to 20,000 years when the temperatures rose close to those we experience today."
• "During the 20,000 years since the peak of the last glaciation, global temperatures have risen by about 8°C."
• "The rate at which vegetation has changed ... has been detected by examining pollen records."
• Sequence of trees invading:
• spruce
• jack pine or red pine
• white pine
• oak
• hemlock
• chestnut
• Forests expand as glaciers retreat! Forests are still expanding till this day!
• Impact on much smaller space and time scales takes place when high discharge events (associated with storms or snow melt) result in a very small-scale mosaic of patches.
• "The stream fauna may rarely achieve an equilibrium between flow disturbances."
• Similar changes also show up in Asia, Africa and South America.
• "Particular ‘hot spots’ of species diversity are likely sites of forest refuges during the glacial periods, and sites of increased rates of speciation."
• "Global warming, maybe 3°C in the next 100 years, is predicted to result from continuing increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide."
• The extinction of the Picea critchfeldii tree in the Quaternary occurred around 15,000 years ago at a time of especially rapid postglacial warming.
• "Even more rapid change in the future could result in extinctions of many additional species."

Glacier melting

Questions

1. Is the current rise in global temperature really attributed to manmade activities or is it just a natural oscillation of temperature inline with temperature variation cycles like those that have been occurring in the distant past?
2. What effect has repeated climatic change had in the distant past on species and what role has it played, if any, in their evolution?