Pollination Nation: It's the Bee's Knees!

We hear the word pollination more and more now, but what does it actually mean?

Pollination is the process of pollen traveling from the male part of the plant to the female part of the plant (or to a different plant) so that the plant can make seeds and fruit.

Wait a second! Plants have male and female parts?

Yes! The stamen are the male parts of the plant and that is where pollen is produced. The female parts of the plant are called the pistil and this is where the plant's ovary is located.

So, how are plants able to transfer pollen anyway?

Pollen moves around by taking advantage of wind, water, or with the help of pollinators. Pollinators are animals, often insects, that eat sweet nectar produced in flowers. Plants actually produce nectar to attract the pollinators to them! When the animal or insect feeds on nectar, they can't help but touch the pollen which sticks to them. As they travel to multiple plants, the pollen is spread and this is the process of pollination. Hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees are a few of the pollinators that live in the biosphere.

Most plants grow flowers but you will have noticed the huge differences in flower size, shape, colour, and even when a plant blooms - this is no accident! Plants pull out all the stops to try and attract different pollinators. From producing beautiful smells and tasty nectar to having very bright coloured blooms. The shape of the flower can also entice certain animals and insects.

The pink lady slipper is a flower in the biosphere that is designed to make sure the pollinator completes its job of getting the pollen to the ovary of the plant. Once the bee enters the flower it has to crawl through a tube in the flower and exit through the other side!

Flowers also have a hidden signal! Light not only allows us to see but it also gives everything colour! Humans can only see visible light, which gives us the colours in the rainbow, but some pollinators can see UV light too! Some flowers attract pollinators with beautiful UV light patterns. Here is an example of how some bees might see these flowers:

Pollinators like bees are designed to pick up LOTS of pollen on their bodies as they feed on nectar. This helps pollen travel and is necessary for the majority of flowers to produce seeds and fruit. Pollination is important for many species and entire food webs, not just the plants.

What’s happening to pollinators?

Honeybee populations have been declining over the past few years. Scientists think the decline in their populations  is from combinations of disease, pesticides, poor nutrition, climate change, and habitat loss.

Industrial agriculture and the use of pesticides on crops are harming bees. Pesticides and chemicals used to protect crops from pests can dissolve in water. They become mixed into runoff water which travels and can then be absorbed by plants miles away. These pesticides end up in the pollen and nectar of flowers and consumed by bees. These chemicals do not kill the bees right away, it takes time. In fact it has more of an affect on the queen's ability to lay eggs. The chemicals lower the amount of eggs that can be produced by the queen.

Parasites are also attacking bees. A parasite is a tiny creature that feeds on a larger host animal in order to survive. In the case of the bee a very tiny parasitic mite feeds on the bees fat cells. These mites have a scary name Varroa destructor mites and can transmit five different illnesses to the bees.

The last major factor affecting bee populations is the loss of habitat. Cities and industrial agriculture are removing available pollinator habitat. There are fewer native flowers and specific plants that support the life cycles of a variety of pollinators, especially bees and monarch butterflies. This is where you can help out! The actives below are two great ways you can help out the pollinators.

Activity: Make A Mason Bee Hotel

There are over 100 species of solitary bees in Ontario - they don’t live in a hive. Solitary bees rarely sting because they don’t protect a queen. Their number one priority is finding food… and pollinating!
Help promote biodiversity by giving solitary bees eggs a safe place to develop, a mason bee hotel!

Materials: Aluminum can, scissors, paper straws/bamboo cane or make your own nesting tubes using parchment paper by wrapping them around a pencil and securing with glue.

1. Measure and cut the nesting tubes to fit vertically inside the can.

2. Fill the can with nesting tubes until they are secure and don’t move around.

3. Find a location for your mason bee hotel so that it:

• Won't move around in the wind,
• Will be well protected,
• Will get lots of sun, and 
• Is at least 3ft above the ground.
  

4. Optional. Consider planting some native flowers near the mason bee hotel! Wild columbine and black eyed Susan’s are favourite flowers for bee’s and butterflies. Milkweed species aren't just for Monarch butterflies, bees like them too! Learn more about native plants species here.

Toad-day's the Day!

Have you seen a toad in the Biosphere? I’ll bet you have! For some reason, we sometimes hear that toads are yucky and ugly, but once you get to know toads you will learn that they are TOAD-ally awesome animals!

Let’s start by clearing up some confusion. Toads are similar to frogs but not exactly the same. It’s kind of like they are cousins! Both toads and frogs are amphibians, meaning they spend part of their life living in the water and part of it living on land. Check out the table below to see how frogs and toads are different and similar.

In Ontario there are 2 species (types) of toads: the American toad and the Fowler’s toad. Chances are you have seen an American toad but not a Fowler’s toad. This is because American toads live all across Ontario, but Fowler’s toads only live in a few places in Ontario (on the north shore of Lake Erie).

Toads can be found in a variety of habitats, from lawns to forests. As long as toads have food and shelter from predators, they aren’t too picky. Unlike frogs, toads can live far from water. This is because toads’ dry, thick skin prevents their bodies from drying up, so they don’t need to spend as much time in the water.

American Toad photo by Kayla Martin

TRICKY TOADS

We love to see toads but toads don’t like to be seen! Their bumpy brown skin helps them hide among leaves, fallen logs, and rocks on the ground. This method of hiding by looking just like the surrounding environment is called camouflage. Toads also avoid being seen by being most active at night, when many predators (animals that might try to eat them!) are asleep.

Did you know toads have a secret defense, just in case a predator tries to eat them? Underneath their bumpy skin toads have glands (groups of special skin cells) that produce a toxic poison. They store the poison in the Parotoid glands –those bumps behind their eyes. If a predator (like a snake, hawk, heron, or raccoon) tries to eat the toad, the toad oozes white goo that contains the toxins from these glands. It tastes gross and can make the predator sick, so they might spit out the toad and leave it alone. In case you were wondering, these toxins are not dangerous to humans unless you swallow them or get them in your eyes.

TRANSFORMING TOADS

Did you know that toads transform into different body shapes throughout their lifetime? In spring, adult toads go to wetlands (like ponds, slow rivers, and marshes) to breed. You can hear males making a loud trilling sound in spring as they try to attract females. Listen to the toad trilling tune below:

After mating in the water, female toads lay their eggs in the water so that the eggs won’t dry up. Toads lay all their eggs in a strand. The eggs develop into tiny baby toads, called tadpoles.Toad tadpoles look nothing like adult toads!  They have no arms or legs but they have a tail and gills so they can live underwater. As the tadpoles grow bigger, they grow their legs first. Next, they grow their arms and at the same time their tails start to shrink. They also develop lungs that allow them to breathe air.

This whole process slowly happens over about 2 months. At the end of the process, the teeny tiny toads (called toadlets) hop out of the water and go explore land in search of bugs to eat. Eventually they grow into adult toads and if they are lucky they can live to be around 10 years old. There might be a toad out there that's the same age as you!

ACTIVITY: MAKE A TOAD ABODE

Would you like to have a toad for a neighbour? Toads can help you out in the garden, too! Toads love to eat bugs, slugs, and other little creatures that try to eat our garden plants. By inviting a toad to live nearby you can help keep your garden growing because the toad will help keep the pests under control. 

Toads make great neighbours. Photo by Kayla Martin

Toads like to have shelter to hide in. A great way to encourage toads to live in your yard is to provide them with shelter. We like to call it a toad abode, because abode is another word for a home and "toad abode" is fun to say. It's very easy to set up a toad abode!

1. Find a small clay container, about the size of a mug or slightly smaller. I used a small clay flower pot! You may decorate it with paint if you'd like. 

2. You know what they say about real estate: "location, location, location!" It's important to choose a good location for your toad abode. Find a spot in soil/sand with plants to provide some shade. 

3. Time to set up your toad abode! Luckily the construction process is very easy. Just dig a little ditch in the soil or sand, then lay the pot on its side in the ditch. Set it so that most of the pot is above the ground, but a little is below. Spread some of the soil into the pot and pack some of the soil around the sides of the pot so the toad abode stays in place. 

4. Be patient and hope that a toad finds the new toad abode! In the meantime, be proud of your efforts to help local toads and remember all the cool things you learned about toads!

Blog post by Kayla Martin, July 2020

The Flashy Lives of Lightning Bugs

Its nighttime and you’re sitting outside around a campfire looking up at the stars and the trees and suddenly you see a tiny blinking light. You think to yourself: did I really just see that? What was that? You see it again and again, then another and another... Are they aliens? Could these lights be fairies? Then you realize you’re surround by hundreds of fireflies!

Your backyard transforms into a whole new world at night! These glowing insects (actually beetles) are some of the most interesting bugs out there. Here’s why!

How to Glow: Firefly Style

Fireflies have a light organ below their abdomen which contains a chemical reaction allowing the firefly to create light.

[Chemical reaction: Oxygen + Ca + Energy (ATP) + a special compound called luciferin, when this compound gets eaten by an enzyme the firefly can produce its own light].

Light created by living things through biochemical reactions is called bioluminescence. 

Bioluminescence is efficient; all the energy is turned into light and not heat! Think about the lightblubs in your home, they produce light but if you've ever touched one that was turned on for awhile you know it gets hot too! Fireflies don’t just produce yellow light, like we commonly see. Different species of fireflies can produce red, green and orange! These beetles have full control over their light organ and can turn it on and off as they please. This allows the fireflies to use their blinking butts for different purposes.

Why Glow at All?

Fireflies glow to communicate. Here is what they are saying:

1. “DON’T EAT ME”: Fireflies have a chemical in them that makes them taste badly to other animals. When they light up this tells predators “Hey if you eat me you’re going to feel really sick." This is a very effective warning sign.

2. “THIS IS WHO I AM”: There are 2,000 different species of fireflies and each species has a unique flashing pattern to let other fireflies know who they are. This helps them find other fireflies of the same species.

3. “HEY I’M LOOKING FOR A MATE”: The flashing patterns are not only for telling the difference between species, but males and females also have different flashing patterns! This is how females choose a mate. Once s female chooses a male firefly, she will sync to his flashing pattern.*

*Scientists have found that the faster and more frequent the flashing, the more attractive males appear to female fireflies!

More on Bioluminescence

Glow worm

What else uses bioluminescence? We are going to have to travel outside of the Biosphere into some of the darkest places on earth to see who else produces their own light.

First stop is the dark caves of New Zealand, home to thousands of glow worms! These creatures make the cave ceiling look like a starry night sky.

Dinoflagellates

Below the ocean's surface live bioluminescent algae called dinoflagellates. (These specific algae blooms are safe and non-toxic). You can find them off the coast of many places across the globe during certain times of the year.

The deepest depths of the ocean where the sun cannot reach may seem empty of life. The only light there is made by the creatures who call the deep ocean home. The angler fish, comb jelly fish, and vomiting shrimp are just a few of the species that produce their own light to help them survive.

Firefly Jokes for your Family & Friends

Q: What did the firefly say to the other firefly when she left.

A: I’ve gotta glow now

Q: What’s the opposite of a firefly

A: A waterfall

Q: Why did the firefly fail his test

A: He wasn’t very bright

Activity: Catch Fireflies

1. 
   Look for fireflies in the evening as they become active between June-August. They prefer wet and/or forested areas.
2. Have a jar ready to go for your firefly adventure. Carefully, or with the help of a parent, poke holes in the lid to allow airflow and place a moist paper towel at the bottom of the jar to keep the humidity.
3. Capture fireflies using butterfly nets. Make sure to be gentle, they are very fragile.
4. Once they are in the net, clamp the top of the net off with your hands after making sure the firefly is at the bottom.
5. Gently encourage the firefly into the jar by turning the jar upside down with the net underneath. Fireflies fly upwards, and should fly up out of the net into the jar.
   
6. Don't keep a firefly in a jar for more than 10 minutes. Always release them at night when they are most active and able to easily get away from predators.
7. Ironically, don't use any flash photography to take a picture of your fireflies. The bright lights can confuse and harm fireflies.
   
8. Happy catching!

Eyes See What You Did There

Animal Vision

What if I told you that you have the ability to see radiation? When we use our eyes to look around we are detecting one type of radiation. That radiation is light! Light is a type of radiation called electromagnetic radiation (ell-eck-tro-mag-net-ick ray-dee-ay-shun). There are other kinds of radiation but the only kind we can detect using our eyes is called the visible spectrum (spectrum means range). Humans can only see colours in the visible spectrum, but some other animals can see beyond the visible spectrum. Let's get an eye-dea of how some of our wildlife neighbours in the Biosphere see their world. 

Owl

Barred Owl. Photo by Kayla Martin

Hoo has the coolest eyes in the bird world? It might be owls! In the Biosphere region we have several species of owls, the common species are the Great Horned Owl and the Barred Owl. Owls are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. They need their eyes to help them see when it’s really dark! 

Owls have big eyes that are tube-shaped, rather than round eyeballs. This unusual shape better collects small amounts of light – and only small amounts of light are available when owls are active at night. This strange shape means that owls can’t roll their eyes within their eye sockets (too bad for sarcastic or annoyed owls!). Instead, owls have flexible necks that let them twist their head around (not 360° but pretty close at 270°) so they can see around them. 

Owl eye diagram. From owlpages.com.

Dragonfly

Dragonflies need to be able to see all around them so they can watch for their insect prey as they zip around in the sky. They also have to be able to see if a predator (like birds such as flycatchers) approaches from any angle.

Dragonflies have two large compound eyes, meaning they eyes are made up of tiny little lenses, each one acting like a single eye. On its own, each lens in the compound eye isn’t very good at seeing, but with thousands together they allow dragonflies to have excellent vision! Dragonflies can see 360° around them… It’s like they’ve got eyes on the backs of their heads, even though it doesn’t look like it! 

Darner Dragonfly. Photo by Kayla Martin

Fish

Fish eyes appear pretty similar to those of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians… but looks can be tricky! There is a part of the eyeball called the lens. In fish, the lens is much rounder compared to other animals – almost like the shape of a ball. This gives them better vision underwater. Human eyes are not like this, which is why things look really blurry if we open our eyes underwater. Similarly, fish probably have a blurry view of the world if we take them out of water and into the air. 

Comparing side views of a fish and human eyeball.

Northern Pike. Photo from Colourbox.com

Ever wonder why fish always have their eyes open? Do they ever sleep? They do sleep, but they do not have eyelids to close over their eyes when they sleep. They don’t need eyelids because in water their eyes won’t get dry and there’s no dust.

Flatworm (Planarian)

Flatworm (planarian) under a microscope.
Photo by Kayla Martin

The proper name is planarian, but flatworm is much more fun to say! Plus, it's easy to remember because this creature truly looks like a flattened worm! Flatworms are tiny -- smaller than half a centimeter. It's tricky to spot them without using a microscope. Flatworms live in water, including Georgian Bay and in lakes across Ontario! They usually stick to the underside of rocks, aquatic plants, and dead plant material in the water. 

Freshwater flatworms like the ones in the Biosphere have two eye spots that look a little like silly cartoon eyes. These eye spots are called simple eyes because all they can do is detect light and dark areas. They cannot detect colour or show a clear image of the flatworm's surroundings. That’s no problem for a flatworm because they have other ways to find food. For example, they can sense chemicals in the water (kind of like how we can smell things in the air).

Snakes

Scientists are still learning lots about snake eyesight. Snakes probably don’t have great vision: they can see shapes but can’t make out clear, crisp details. Scientists are pretty sure that all snakes can only see blue and green, but not red (humans can see all three). Most snakes can also see ultraviolet (UV) light, which helps them see better in low light. During the day, it can get too bright for snakes because there is lots of UV light and lots of visible light. To help with this, some snakes have a special filter in their eyes so they can block out UV light– like built-in sunglasses!

How a mouse might look to a
 snake with pits for sensing heat.
Photo by Julius Lab UCSF.

Some types of snakes can “see” heat. Boas, pythons, and pit vipers have a tiny pit on each side of their face, just in front of their eyes. These pits allow them to sense heat (actually another type of light called infrared light). Pit vipers eat small mammals like rodents, so being able to sense the heat from their prey helps them hunt, especially at night. The only snake in Ontario with this ability is the Massasauga rattlesnake.

Massasauga Rattlesnake. Photo by Kayla Martin.

Activities

1. Who am Eye?

Match the eyes with the animal!

2. Eyes on Me!

Think of some of the things you do each day, and think of what animal’s eyes you would like to have for those activities. How would they help you? We’ve filled in one already, but you can add the rest. Add a comment to this blog and let us know what eyes you’d like for one of these activities!

Blog by Kayla Martin, July 2020

Are You Likin' the Lichen?

Before you read any further, STOP and look outside. Notice all the life that exists around you from the grass and trees to the insects and animals. How did it get here? When and how was life able to thrive here in the biosphere? Well, it was all made possible by an organism you likely see all the time: lichen!

 Algae cell being hugged by fungi inside the lichen.

What on earth is a lichen anyway? Lichen are  the result of a symbiotic relationship between a fungi and an algae. This means that both the fungi and algae benefit each other and actually need each other to live. Algae cannot live outside of the water, so the fungi provides a protective capsule by hugging the algae. The algae helps the fungi by using photosynthesis to turn sunlight into food, providing the fungi with energy. This is a relationship where both partners benefit. 

Reindeer Lichen on the forest floor 

Lichen were one of the first living things to begin life outside of the oceans and they helped to lead the way for all other life on land. The Canadian shield around 250 million years ago was rocky and bare when the lichens started to slowly climb on. Lichens create acidic enzymes that break rock down and this allowed for minerals and nutrients inside the rocks to create soil over a very long time. This allowed mosses, grasses, and other vegetation to appear next on the Canadian shield and eventually larger trees and shrubs.

There are over 20,000 different species of lichen in the world and it is estimated they cover 6% of the Earth’s surface! Their relationship between fungi and algae allow them to live almost anywhere. You can find lichen living in the scorching hot deserts all the way to the frozen tundra. Lichen never move and they are super slow growing, but this allows them to live a very long time. The oldest lichens, found in the Arctic, are estimated to be 8,600 YEARS OLD! Since they grow so slowly and live so long scientists can use lichen to estimate the age of geological and man-made structures.

Left: Lichen in the Arctic. Right: Lichen on the coast of Namibia, Africa

Though lichens are able to exist in so many places, like all superheros, they have their weakness too: air pollution. There are some species of lichen that cannot live in areas with poor air quality. This makes some lichens a great bioindicator, a living organism that can help scientists determine if an ecosystem is healthy or not. When there are few lichen living in an area, it is a good sign there is air pollution in that area.

So let’s listen to lichen!

Activity: Lichen Abstract Art

Lichen come in many beautiful patterns and colours. Let's re-create some of them through abstract art! You will need:

• Paint
• A sponge and/or tissue paper
• Glue
• A rock or paper to display your lichen art

The two lichen shapes you can make are called crustose and foliose lichen.

Crustose: These lichens grow flat to rocks and trees and have a spotty rough texture. To make this type of lichen:

1. Dip your sponge in paint and dab it on your rock or paper.
2. Try layering your lichen art with different colour paints, different shades of the same colour, or use different sponges with larger or smaller holes.

Crustose Lichens

Foliose: These lichens are raised higher off of rocks and tree branches, they look more lobbed. To make this lichen:

1. Rip or cut out strips or pieces of tissue paper to represent the lichen.
2. Glue your tissue paper on your canvas of choice in a "fingery" shape like lichen.
3. Do this until your satisfied with how your lichen looks. Try scrunching or layering the tissue paper after the first layer dries.
4. You might want to paint your lichen to add shadows or more colours.

Foliose Lichens