I’m writing this at my house in central Connecticut. Twenty thousand years ago, this spot was buried under a mile of ice.

About thirteen thousand years ago, after the ice thinned and retreated, plants swept over the bare land. They came from the southern United States, and they established the same kinds of forests and swamps that had grown in Connecticut in earlier periods between the Ice Ages.

But today, many of the most abundant plants around my house today come from distant continents–plants like honeysuckle. And Japanese barberry. And ground ivy. And the knotweed. And on and on: you can read a list of invasive plants in Connecticut here.

It’s a story repeated around the world. As ships cross the oceans and planes soar through the air, they deliver species to places that would probably never get to on their own. And sometimes they thrive amazingly, beating back the native species.

Continue reading “On Superiority” →

In 2003, an army of 350 scientists and volunteers swept out across Central Park. Their mission, called a BioBlitz, was to find as many species as possible over the course of 24 hours. At the end of the day, they had compiled a catalog of 836 species of plants and animals.

It’s impressive that Central Park–an 843-acre island in an ocean of Manhattan concrete–can play host to so many species. But that’s hardly a complete inventory of the biodiversity of the place. Along with its plants and animals, Central Park is home to invisible wildlife too.

Continue reading “The Central Park Zoo Hidden From View” →

Recently I’ve  been writing a fair amount about plants–what they can tell us about the deep history of life, as well as what life will be like for them in the near future.

Tomatoes, dahlias, and many other cultivated plants can fall victim to a strange infection. The pathogen is not a fungus or a bacterium or even a virus. Instead, it’s a naked snippet of genes known as a viroid. A team of scientists is convinced that viroids are relics of the earliest stages of life on Earth, a form of life that evolved before the dawn of DNA. For the rest of the story, see my column in the New York Timesmy column in the New York Times.

Viroids will still be a fact of life for plants in the next century–but so will a rapid shift in the climate. What will happen to plants when the temperature in their current range changes? Will they be able to colonize places further from the equator where they can still thrive? Or will they be unable to get there fast enough? In another piece for the New York Times, I investigate the question by looking at one plant in particular, the magnificent whitebark pine. Check it out.

Continue reading “Pines and Viroids: On The Deep Past And Imminent Future of Life” →