MLK Day of Service at Gold Park

On January 15th, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I volunteered at Gold Park to participate in an ecology-based service learning project. The event was held from 10 a.m to 2 p.m at a local community park owned by the City of Lynnwood, only a block away from Edmonds Community College. This day of service was sponsored by The Blue Heron Community Family, the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative (CCURI), The Snohomish Tribe of Indians, and several of the departments at Edmonds Community College. Tom Murphy, a professor in the anthropology department at EdCC, who can be contacted at tmurphy@email.edcc.edu, is also heavily involved in organizing and supporting this annual event. For this project, we worked in Gold Park’s Ethnobotanical Garden, where various tasks were divided amongst those who participated in the event. A few of these tasks included removing invasive species in the garden, on both a small scale and a large scale; and minimizing waste placement of native plants. The purpose of this event was to preserve and improve the condition of the Ethnobotanical Garden with people in the community.

At this event, I joined the group that learned about native and invasive species of plants and how to distinguish between the two. After learning how to identify which plants were invasive to the surrounding species, we dug up their roots and removed them from the environment, as shown in the photo below. This procedure would have been ineffective if the roots were not removed along with the invasive species, because it would have allowed the plant to regrow in the same location from which it was temporarily removed. Because of this, it was important to make sure that the entire root of an invasive species was removed, to eliminate the species from the environment. The invasive species that we removed included the Himalayan blackberry, yellow archangel, English ivy, and holly. We had to find distinguishing features between these plants and the two native species, Oregon Grape and trailing blackberry plants, to ensure that we were not removing plants that are beneficial to the environment. This was a lot more difficult than it sounded, because I definitely removed a couple of native species on accident.

This event raised my awareness of the negative impacts that invasive species can have upon an environment and the organisms inhabiting the same environment. The role of science in society became very evident after participating in this day of service at Gold Park. I didn’t realize how unaware I was of the consequences that invasive species can have on the environment, the organisms that inhabit it, and on agricultural industries. I learned that invasive species have the ability to modify the soil in their surrounding environment in such a way that allows the invasive species to thrive, while simultaneously hindering the growth of native species. As a result, invasive species have the potential to displace native species, ultimately resulting in a loss of biodiversity of the plants in the environment. Additionally, I learned that increased levels of soil toxicity decrease the amount of growth and nutrients that are available from the native species in the environment. Because of this, agricultural industries are negatively affected due to a decrease in the amount and quality of resource production. I also learned that the presence of native species fosters a habitat for animals, while invasive species are damaging to wildlife habitats. Therefore, animals are also losing their habitats to invasive plants, decreasing the resources that are available to the animals inhabiting the surrounding environment, and forcing them to find a new habitat to live in. As a result of moving locations, these animals are likely introduced to new selection pressures that were not present in their original habitat. Clearly, the effects that invasive species can have on the environment are far-reaching, especially because animals and humans are negatively affected as well. Each of these factors emphasize the importance of participating in community service events to become educated on factors that are beneficial and destructive in the community, and working as a team maximize the condition of local environments.

This service learning activity closely relates to a lot of the material we have been discussing and working with in class. As I mentioned earlier, invasive species have the potential to displace native species in the environment. This means that plants experience the effects of natural selection and other evolutionary processes as well. Making this connection was difficult for me, because in class we focused on natural selection with respect to animals. But in an environment where both native and invasive plants are, each of the species are competing for resources, such as water, nutrients in the soil, and oxygen in the air. The presence of invasive species uses up a good portion of each of these resources, significantly decreasing the the amount of resources available to native species that benefit the environment. As a result, each of the plant species experience selection pressures due to available nutrients, and whichever species is more efficient at obtaining nutrients and water from the soil and air through respiration with respect to the quantities they need to function efficiently will be selected for. Additionally, the presence of invasive species can lead to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the environment. As we have been learning in class, oxygen is easier to obtain when there are higher partial pressures of oxygen in the environment. As a result higher carbon dioxide emissions will affect the way native species respond in regards to respiration and creates a selection pressure on all of the plant species inhabiting the environment. The plant species can adjust and adapt to the higher carbon dioxide partial pressures in the atmosphere have the potential to outlive the species that cannot. Biology is certainly an interdisciplinary subject because biological effects have the potential to impact animals, humans, and businesses, especially agricultural and ecological-based industries. For example, the types of plant species in an environment affect the animals inhabiting the environment, determining the amount and quality of resources available, which play a role in the success and production of resources from certain industries and businesses, further determining  their cost, quality, and availability to us humans. Biology can answer many questions when it comes down to environmental conditions and natural resource availability. Therefore, knowledge of plant and animal biology is valuable information in order to understand fluctuations of agricultural and ecological industries, which is one of biology’s interdisciplinary aspects.

Leaving this service learning event, I am still left with several questions. Can all plant species be harmful or invasive in one geographical area, but native and beneficial for another? How are invasive plant species originally introduced to an environment in a way that allows them to sufficiently grow in the given location? What other methods, if any, are used to remove and prevent the growth of invasive species, other than physically uprooting the species? To what extent can natural selection and other evolutionary processes act upon plant populations, and how do these aspects compare to the ways that evolutionary processes act upon animal populations (other than the added dynamic of movement in animals)?