PROGRAM
FEATURES ⊕ Weird But Perfectly Natural! → 4 ⊕ The Biodôme’s Ecosystems → 8 ⊕ In Search of Lost Fruits and Vegetables → 11
⊕ Cities: Sources of Some Surprising Adaptations → 18
⊕ Let’s Talk Conservation → 26 DON’T MISS ⊕ The Small World of Milkweed → 16 ⊕ Eco-anxiety… And What You Can Do About It → 23
⊕ Let’s All Pull Together, One Eco-action at a Time → 29
 
PHOTO Claude Lafond
JOURNALISTS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Valérie Levée Marion Spée Fanny Rohrbacher Isabelle Burgun Sylvie Goulet André Grandchamps Marie-Ève André Lucile Pic RESEARCH AND VALIDATION
PROOFREADING
Bianca Joubert TRADUCTION
James Cookson Karin Montin Alexandra Mathieu GRAPHIC ARTIST
Stéphanie Rivet (Pulsation graphique)
Espace pour la vie GRAPHIC DESIGN
orangetango
BY CHARLES-MATHIEU BRUNELLE
© ESPACE POUR LA VIE 2020
IN THIS EDITION WEIRD BUT PERFECTLY NATURAL! → 4 WHEN THE UNIVERSE WAS GIVEN A HISTORY → 7 THE BIODÔME’S ECOSYSTEMS → 8 IN SEARCH OF LOST FRUITS AND VEGETABLES → 11 COMING TO THE AID OF URBAN WETLANDS → 14 THE SMALL WORLD OF MILKWEED → 16 CITIES: SOURCES OF SOME SURPRISING ADAPTATIONS → 18 FUTURE OF THE PLANET TAKING ON SHADES OF BLUE → 20 ECO-ANXIETY… AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT → 23 LET’S TALK CONSERVATION → 26 LET’S ALL PULL TOGETHER, ONE ECO-ACTION AT A TIME → 29 WHERE DOES THE EARTH’S WATER COME FROM? → 30
ESPACE POUR LA VIE DIRECTOR
The Biodôme is at the heart of Montreal and in the heart of all Montrealers. It is also at the heart of Space for Life, which is about to reveal its transformation in the spring of 2020. This spectacular " Migration " will allow us to rediscover the ecosystems of the Americas from new perspectives and will invite the visitor to become a real player in the preservation of biodiversity. Our future actions should carry us even further, towards a real commitment, a renewed " fascination ". Can we face the challenges that await us without pleasure, without an authentic affection for what surrounds us? It is no longer simply a matter of preserving, by obligation, under the threat and fear of an inevitable end. Our commitment must come with the ability to rediscover the wonders of nature. Can we imagine tomorrow's world as only living with each other, simply between us humans? Without all these other species which, after all, ensure our survival by caring for us, nourishing us and enchanting us. Yes, by enchanting us. As long as we let ourselves be touched and transformed by nature's magnificence. And if the first action that we had to take to ensure the ecological transition was in fact to rediscover what is before us, what surrounds us and enriches us; what makes us more substantial, more complete? If you pay attention to it, biodiversity reveals itself all the time. It unveils us. Can we imagine that our giddiness, our soul's idleness or our ambition are destroying all this beauty, when we should rather allow it to spread, to flourish, to get us excited, to overwhelm our heart, to finally invade us fully? We can never tire of what delights us and makes us better. Destroying nature is insane. This gradually brings us to an impoverishment of the senses, which allow us to find our bearings in the world. "Ne tuons pas la beauté du monde. Faisons de la terre un grand jardin" sang Diane Dufresne. What if it was that simple? ⊗
Legal deposit - Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, 2020 ISBN 978-2-924977-02-6
ODD PLANTS
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WEIRD BUT PERFECTLY NATURAL! • BY VALÉRIE LEVÉE
Water, light, CO2, minerals—that’s essentially all a plant needs to grow. As these resources are found in ecosystems in varying amounts, plants have to capture as much of them as they can and use them efficiently. But that’s not the whole story: they also have to reproduce. And for that, they sometimes need pollinators, which they try to attract in all kinds of ways.
PHOTO Shutterstock/SIM ONE
↓ Due to their shapes and colors, lithops are strange plants.
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Over the course of evolution, these challenges have fostered the development in plants of numerous adaptations that have helped them to survive in their environments. Solutions to these challenges have emerged through random genetic mutations, sometimes leading to seemingly strange characteristics. Here’s an anthology of plant oddities.
PHOTO Richard Adcock
ODD PLANTS
PLANTS OR PEBBLES? In arid environments, living beings have to protect themselves from heat and drought. That’s what “living stones” or lithops do; lithops literally means “stony appearance.” These “pebbles” are actually leaves. A lithops plant consists of two cone-shaped leaves that face each other. The two leaves, like those of other succulent plants, store water, but they’re also partly buried. That’s how they shield themselves from the heat of the day (as high as 70°C) and the cold of the night (as low as 0°C). Being partially buried also protects them from herbivores! When fall arrives and conditions are favourable, a colorful flower emerges from between the two leaves, giving away the true plant nature of these unusual stones.
CURLING TO CATCH DEW A fog desert on the coast of South Africa is home to strange plants with curly-whirly leaves. One of them is Albuca spiralis, or corkscrew albuca. What makes the leaves curl up is not the humidity of the mist, but rather the need to adapt to a desert environment. Over the course of evolution, the environmental conditions have favoured the natural selection of a leaf shape that is optimal for collecting as much water as possible from the mist and dew. In the desert where corkscrew albuca grows, the mist from the sea sometimes gets carried inland, bringing its share of water droplets. The relative humidity, which in this case can reach 85%, is deposited in the early hours in the form of dew. It turns out that the edges of the leaf catch dew and droplets better than the leaf blade. In a desert-like environment, these narrow leaves also have the advantage of being less exposed to the air, which limits the loss of water through transpiration. The leaves form a channel that carries the captured water to the base of the plant, keeping the soil there humid. Many plants that grow in this region are curly, frizzled or spiralled. In this environment, it’s perfectly normal!
PHOTO Shutterstock/pr2is
If you go to South Africa or Namibia, careful where you walk. What looks like a pebble to you could be a plant!
↑ Above: Albuca spiralis, below: Darlingtonia californica.
GULPING DOWN MINERALS In bogs and marshes, plants don’t lack water, but they sometimes lack minerals. Now, it so happens that insects are a good source of minerals, but plants have to catch them first. That’s what Darlingtonia californica does, a carnivorous plant that grows in northern California and Oregon, also called cobra plant. It takes its name from the fact that the ends of its tubular leaves look like a rearing cobra. But besides evoking a cobra, the leaves serve as insect traps. With their bright colours and glands that secrete nectar, they attract insects to the opening of the tube located just below the “head of the cobra.” To get out of the trap, insects try to move toward the light. The cells of the top of the “cobra head” are translucent and let light through. So, insects make for the light, run into the top of the “cobra head,” slide down the very slippery sides of the leaf and fall into the bottom of the tube. Downward-pointing hairs prevent the insects from climbing back out of the tube. They eventually end up drowning in a digestive liquid, from which Darlingtonia californica takes the nitrogen it needs. Many carnivorous plants have a similar survival strategy: attract, capture and digest prey to obtain precious nutrients not otherwise available in a nutrient-poor habitat. And they achieve this thanks to quite extraordinary modified leaves.
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ODD PLANTS
ADAPTED TRANSPORT OF POLLEN
THE ODD PLANTS OF Mrs Z
Among flowering plants, exchanging pollen helps to mix genes between individuals and create genetic variability as a basis for natural selection. Some plants are pollinated by the wind, but that makes the transport of pollen very haphazard. Orchids benefit from a form of adapted transport of pollen, provided by insects.
JARDIN BOTANIQUE FEBRUARY 26 — APRIL 26
One remarkable example is Ophrys bombyx, the bumblebee orchid, which, besides looking like a female bee, also gives off a similar smell. That is enough to attract a male bee, which, if it has already visited another bumblebee orchid, will bring along its pollen.
Carnivores, Giants, Succulents, Enigmatics and Animals lie in wait for you!
The lady’s-slipper orchid also attracts bees with its fragrance. Better still, it gets them to fall into the trap formed by a slippershaped petal. To get out of the trap, the bee has to rub its back against the pollen, which it will then take away and deposit on another orchid. As their names suggest, the monkey orchid has what looks like a monkey face, and the flying duck orchid looks like a duck. But don’t go thinking that they’re pollinated by a monkey or a duck. The names simply refer to likenesses people have seen in the plants. In these cases, too, the flowers are pollinated by insects! Curly leaves, carnivory, traps, unusual transportation of pollen—these are all shapes or strategies that allow plants to grow and reproduce in specific, sometimes inhospitable habitats. While these extraordinary adaptations may, at first sight, seem ridiculous, bizarre or frivolous, for the plants they are real guarantees of survival. Ultimately, they are strange only in our eyes. ⊗
PHOTO Shutterstock/cotosa
PHOTO Shutterstock/Mitotico
↓ A monkey orchid.
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THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
WHEN THE UNIVERSE WAS GIVEN A HISTORY • BY ANDRÉ GRANDCHAMPS
At the start of the 20th century, the work of two astronomers led to a discovery that would radically alter scientists’ conception of our world: the expansion of the Universe. That discovery caused a revolution that would change astronomy forever.
Thanks to this discovery, astronomers recognized that the Universe as we know it is not unchanging, but has its own history that has been unfolding since the dawn of time. This realization led to the Big Bang theory.
Priest and astrophysicist Georges Lemaître was the first protagonist in this story. His understanding of Einstein’s theory of general relativity made him realize that the Universe cannot be static. The various objects that constitute the Universe must be moving away from one another. In conducting his analysis, he recognized that in the past, the Universe must have been far smaller, denser and hotter. For Lemaître, the primitive Universe must have been compressed in a small, extremely hot and dense “egg,” which then expanded until it reached the size we observe today.
In this theory, the original state of the Universe is referred to as the initial singularity. That singularity began expanding at a dizzying rate at the start of its history, and then proceeded to slow down. As it expanded, the Universe cooled, allowing matter to form and acquire structure. Ultimately, 10 billion years later, life emerged on a tiny planet in our solar system and gradually evolved into the huge diversity we are familiar with today. ⊗
The work Lemaître published in 1927 was theoretical, however. To be accepted by other astronomers, experimental evidence of the expansion had to be found. This is where the second main figure in this scientific adventure intervened. At that time, American astronomer Edwin Hubble was studying galaxies using the Mount Wilson telescope in California. Through his observations, he discovered that the galaxies were moving away from us, as Lemaître had predicted. He even showed that the farther a galaxy is away from us, the faster it is moving away.
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You can discover this fascinating story—and many more like it—in the film Horizon, now showing at the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan.
These observations constituted striking proof of Lemaître’s theories about the expansion of the Universe.
PHOTO LiVE @GOTO inc.
The relationship between the distance of a galaxy and the speed at which it is moving away is now called the Hubble-Lemaître law.
HORIZON PLANÉTARIUM RIO TINTO ALCAN NOW SHOWING
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ECOSYSTEM LINKS
THE BIODÔME’S ECOSYSTEMS • BY MARION SPÉE
The Biodôme is close to reopening! Its bold architecture provides a brand-new setting for showcasing the beauty of nature and the complex, fragile interrelationships that exist within e cosystems. The visitor experience promises to be more immersive and participatory, but also more moving and introspective.
GRAND RE-OPENING BIODÔME
IMAGE KANVA
SPRING
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ECOSYSTEM LINKS
It has to be said that the subject matter—ingenious, irreplaceable nature—lends itself to this kind of experience. Now—as we are being made increasingly aware of how fragile nature has become in recent decades—is more than ever the time to give it a place of honour. While the Biodôme has a role to play in the conservation of endangered species, it also has a responsibility toward its visitors. The Biodôme team has therefore focused its efforts and attention on ensuring optimum living conditions for its plants and animals, but also on providing a one-of-a-kind experience, with new perspectives, for its visitors. The Tropical Rainforest, the Laurentian Maple Forest, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as well as the Sub-Antarctic Islands and the Labrador Coast are still its flagship ecosystems. But, from now on, each will be enveloped by a “living” wall: a curved, fluid, flexible structure. The clean, white surface contrasts sharply with the multisensory profusion of the living collections. In addition, a mezzanine level gives visitors a wonderful vantage point on the individual ecosystems, as well as an overall panorama. The design lets visitors observe the wildlife from above, so that they can appreciate the vital interrelationships between individuals, but also provides a “macro” overview, which is an essential dimension, as the links that exist between species within an ecosystem are what make life possible.
from it, although at least it doesn’t bother its host. One interesting finding reported by researchers is that by analysing the composition of fossilized barnacle shells, they were able to retrace whales’ migration routes: it turns out they’ve been following the same routes for 270,000 years! Likewise in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, real forms of mutualism can be found, such as between the hermit crab and the sea anemone. In mutualism, both species benefit from their relationship with the other. In practice, the anemone attaches itself to the hermit crab so it can move around effortlessly and gain easy access to food, including cleaning up the crab’s leftovers. In return, the crab enjoys added protection against possible predators, which learn to avoid the stinging cells on the anemone’s tentacles. In addition, the anemone produces a horn-like substance that increases the size of the shell the crab is squatting in. As a result, the crab doesn’t have to move house so often. It’s a win-win arrangement. ↓ A hermit crab with an anemone on its shell.
The Gulf of St. Lawrence, for instance, teems with life. There are all kinds of examples of the relationships among its species. Take plankton, for instance, which consists of both plant organisms (phytoplankton) and animal organisms (zooplankton) that are carried along by the currents. Together, these minute organisms make up the largest aquatic biomass: their total weight is equivalent to the near-totality of the weight of all the other creatures in the sea, including fish, shellfish and whales! What’s more, plankton is the first link in marine food chains. It includes microscopic species as well as others as large as 5 cm in diameter. It is the prey of small predators, which are themselves eaten by larger creatures. Also, big animals like blue whales consume large amounts of plankton. Without plankton, marine species simply couldn’t exist! Plankton is where it all begins. Another example is the acorn barnacle, a small crustacean resembling a shrimp covered that attaches itself to boat hulls, wrecks, rocks and even whales (especially humpback whales, grey whales and right whales). The acorn barnacle secretes a calcareous carapace (shell) that enables it to remain attached to its host and feed by extending its legs to filter the water and ingest suspended plankton. This relationship between barnacle and host is sometimes referred to as commensalism, but the relationship is not reciprocal, as the barnacle alone benefits
PHOTO Shutterstock/southmind
LINKS ESSENTIAL TO LIFE
Through the emphasis it places on a novel, immersive visitor experience, the new Biodôme pays tribute to nature by focusing on how beautiful it is. The goal is straightforward: Leave us marvelling at the wonders of nature and remind us just how valuable biodiversity is. But also awaken our commitment as members of a community to help preserve ecosystems. People say that an experience has been great if it was a source of pleasure. So we often hear people say, “we love what we know, and protect what we love.” The team at the Biodôme is investing all its energy into ensuring that’s true.
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IMAGE La bande à Paul
ECOSYSTEM LINKS
ON THE OTHER HAND The Bio-machine: A new Biodôme experience, that lets you see what goes on behind the scenes. How do we get the turtles in the Laurentian Maple Forest to hibernate in winter? How do our veterinarians examine wild animals? How do we encourage our animals’ natural behaviour? At 23 interactive stations, which include games, videos and objects, you can now learn more about the tips and tricks used to ensure
the care, feeding and general well-being of the Biodôme’s plants and animals. Also, with the video game “Mission: Biodôme Operator,” you can pretend you’re an operator and assume responsibility for maintaining the best possible conditions of water, air and light in the living environments. ⊗
HEIRLOOM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
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IN SEARCH OF LOST FRUITS AND VEGETABLES • BY VALÉRIE LEVÉE
Meat, fruits and vegetables, but no grains or dairy products, and definitely no processed foods. These are the main points of the “paleo” diet, which advocates for a return to what our prehistoric ancestors used to eat. Except that prehistoric fruits and vegetables have little in common with the ones we eat now because they’ve been transformed by modern farming practices. Let’s go back to cave-dweller times to find out about the ancestors of today’s bananas, pumpkins and corn, which used to make up
PHOTO Shutterstock/Natali Glado
their diet.
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PHOTO John Doebley
PHOTO D'Hont, Angelique CIRAD
HEIRLOOM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
↑ The banana that we buy at the grocery store has nothing to do with its ancestor that we find in the wild. (to the left) / The teosinte is our corn's ancestor. (to the right).
THE FRUIT OF A GRASS
PUMPKINS AND OTHER SQUASH
Contrary to appearances, the banana tree is not actually a tree, but rather a giant herbaceous plant! Originally from Asia, it has been cultivated in Papua New Guinea for over 7,000 years. But the bananas of prehistoric times neither looked nor tasted like the modern-day varieties. Like the wild bananas that still grow in Asia, they were full of seeds and had little flesh. Nothing like the cultivated bananas we eat.
Zucchini, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, straightneck squash, pattypan squash—you wouldn’t have found any of these on a prehistoric menu: they simply didn’t exist. Despite their different shapes, colours and tastes, they all come from the same ancestor: Cucurbita pepo, which grew in Mexico and the southern United States.
These ancient bananas did have the advantage of being fertile, however. Since growers had several species available to them, they could crossbreed them. Over time, they obtained fleshier bananas, which they selected for eating and kept the seeds for breeding. This crossbreeding also led to a fruit that develops from the female flower, without it needing to be fertilized (parthenocarpy). Thus, the modern, seedless banana was born. But it has to rely on human intervention because it’s sterile!
The fruit of this heirloom species were small balls, a few centimetres in diameter, with tough, bitter, stringy flesh. The hunter-gatherers of prehistoric times harvested them primarily for their seeds, and then began to grow them, about 10,000 years ago, as evidenced by squash remains found in caves in Mexico. Some 5,000 years later, Indigenous people in the United States also began cultivating them. In both cases, the growers had thousands of years to select squash varieties for their size, taste, shape and colour. In the 16th century, squash was brought to Italy on ships returning from the New World and by the 19th century, the Italians had selected zucchini as their favourite type. This small, slim and green squash looks tiny beside its sister, the big orange pumpkin, but it became so popular that it spread around the world, and ended up back in the Americas again.
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HEIRLOOM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
SAVOUR YOUR GARDEN
FROM TEOSINTE TO CORN
JARDIN BOTANIQUE
It was likewise in Mexico that hunter-gatherers began cultivating teosinte, the ancestor of corn. But there’s no way they could have done teosinte roasts, as the kernels weren’t sweet and the ears were tiny!
JUNE 26 TO AUGUST 30
From Mexico, corn traveled south with humans to Argentina and north to Canada, then to the rest of the world, and a huge number of different varieties were developed, each suited to its local climate. If corn roasts are possible today, it’s because corn kernels have lost their shell and a genetic mutation caused an increase of its sugar content.
PHOTO Shutterstock/Mal Foxtail
In fact, teosinte, which still grows in the wild in Mexico today, is so different from corn that it’s hard to believe it’s its ancestor. Instead of a single, strong stalk bearing an ear with several hundred large kernels, teosinte has branches with lots of ears consisting of a handful of small, hard kernels wrapped in a shell. Did hunter-gatherers grind these kernels into flour? Did they suck out the sugar from the pith of the plant stem? Did they eat the flowers? Or did they ferment the pith to make an alcoholic drink? Whatever the case, the first farmers selected the plants they could get the most out of, and archaeological remains show that what they were growing around 9,000 years ago wasn’t teosinte anymore, but corn. If the beauty of the Jardin botanique is visible at first sight, it is also tasty! That's what inspired our team to create the "Savour your Garden" event. Thus, all summer, the flavors of the Chinese Garden, the Japanese Garden, the First Nations Garden and the Tree Pavilion will delight your taste buds!
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NOW IT’S YOUR TURN TO CULTIVATE HEIRLOOM PLANTS • BY VALÉRIE LEVÉE
If you want to see what teosinte looks like, go to the Latin America kitchen garden. It’s cultivated by Isabelle Paquin, the horticulturist in charge of the Useful Plants Garden. Also grown in the garden are exotic food plants like pepino dulce (sweet cucumber), sticky nightshade, quinoa and pipicha. And in the adjacent African kitchen garden, you’ll find okra, gboma, black-eyed peas and even peanuts! Believe it or not, these “hot country” plants are perfectly happy in Montreal! “Summer’s short, but it’s hot and humid. If we start these plants from seeds, they’ll grow,” says Ms. Paquin. Immigrants, glad to see plants from their countries of origin, may want to grow them at home, as Hamidou Horticulture does with African eggplant, cotton and also heritage and Indigenous vegetables.
Growing heirloom plants lends an exotic touch to a garden by helping rediscover forgotten tastes. If you’re interested, you can find tips on the website blog Potagers d’antan and seeds in libraries like Santropol Roulant and the Atwater Seed Library, in Montreal, or Seeds of Diversity, across Canada. Ms. Paquin says that heirloom plants can be grown just like present-day plants. She suggests starting with ones that are easier to grow, like beans and peas. And if you really do want to get into heritage plants, why not revive the ancient practice of the three sisters, by growing corn, beans and squash together, as Indigenous peoples used to do? If you plant corn first, it will serve as a support for climbing beans, while the leaves of the squash will protect the soil from drying out and help prevent weeds from growing.
PORTRAIT OF A RESEARCHER
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COMING TO THE AID OF URBAN WETLANDS • BY FANNY ROHRBACHER
PHOTO Elena Berd
Bogs, marshes, swamps—wetlands are some of our planet’s richest, most productive ecosystems. Thanks to the resources they contain and functions they support, wetlands provide us with a wide range of ecosystem services. In urban and suburban areas, they serve as natural catch basins by filtering and purifying rainwater. They also reduce the load on sewer systems and channel rainwater into rivers and streams, while also offering habitat for vulnerable urban flora and fauna. They are also seen as beautiful islands of coolness that are ideal places for birdwatching and recreational activities. Nevertheless, human or natural disturbances can soon threaten these sensitive ecosystems.
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PORTRAIT OF A RESEARCHER
Stéphanie Pellerin is a researcher at the Jardin botanique de Montréal and an adjunct professor in the department of biological sciences at the Université de Montréal. She is seeking to understand how different disturbances affect the evolution of plant communities in urban wetlands. She has found that by drying out wetlands, urban development impacts plant diversity by allowing the introduction of terrestrial, often exotic, species. While this makes wetlands plant life more diversified, the new plants no longer perform the same ecological functions, which compromises the role of wetlands.
In this context, Dr. Pellerin is seeking to identify sites to be preserved, restored, recreated or left as they are. Knowing that ongoing climate change will further dry up these ecosystems, she wants to be able to foresee whether the existing conservation network will continue to provide the best possible results in the future. While some wetlands may not be having particularly beneficial effects on cities today, their impact may become significant 10, 20 or 50 years from now. Given that wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems the world over, Dr. Pellerin’s research will help establish a solid basis for their conservation. A well-designed conservation plan for these environments could help reduce the risk of flooding, for instance, which is a growing threat for Quebecers living near rivers and lakes. ⊗
PHOTO Denis Lauzer
The goal of Dr. Pellerin’s research is to understand the functioning of these environments over time and so hopefully be able to predict how they will evolve. The results of her studies should provide guidance for management plans tailored to urban wetlands and help preserve their plant diversity. Each wetland is seen as a link in a dynamic network of interconnected ecosystems, with each one performing a function that complements the others.
100 YEARS OF GREATNESS FOR FRANCOPHONE RESEARCH • BY SYLVIE GOULET
In 2020, the Institut de recherche en biologie végétale (IRBV) will celebrate 100 years of age! An exceptional anniversary, since there are very few French-language research institutes in Canada. Resulting from a unique partnership between the Université de Montréal and the Jardin botanique, the IRBV is widely recognized as a centre of excellence focused on researching and teaching plant biology. It includes 21 researchers and more than 180 university students. The Biodiversity Centre, which strives for the highest research and educational standards while raising public awareness of the major issues related to biodiversity, was added to this partnership in 2011. This fruitful synergy is built on both internationally recognized IRBV scientific expertise and on the outreach of research at the Jardin botanique, which receives nearly one million visitors every year. Brother Marie-Victorin, founder of the Jardin botanique and the Botanical Institute of the Université de Montréal in 1920, would certainly be proud of the progress made!
THE SMALL WORLD OF MILKWEED • B Y MARIE-EVE ANDRÉ AND LUCILE PIC
Over the course of their evolutionary history, plants and insects have woven close relationships. Milkweed, of which there are a dozen or so species in Canada, is an amazingly effective plant in the way it adapts to curb the impact of herbivores on its growth. Sticky latex, toxic molecules—every means possible is used to avoid being eaten! In turn, some insects have adapted to foil its defences. This is how milkweed and its mini-community influence each other: a complex co-evolution that has developed over millions of years.
LATEX
TOXIC COMPOUNDS
PHOTO Espace pour la vie (Sonya Charest)
As a means of protection, milkweed produces a sticky, viscous latex that oozes out copiously at the slightest harm to its leaves or stems. For example, if a milkweed plant is gnawed by an insect, an abundant flow of latex immediately leaks out onto the plant-eater, sticking to its mandibles or legs—making it hard for the insect to really chow down! As a result, many insects simply opt to look elsewhere for their next meal.
Milkweed tissue contains toxic compounds called “cardenolides.” Besides their bitter taste, these molecules have unpleasant effects on animals that ingest them: heart palpitations, nausea, slower growth, etc. Cardenolides are found in various concentrations in several parts of the plant, from the roots to the leaves, by way of the stems. But it’s the latex that contains the most! That’s what makes it even more effective at repelling leaf-eaters.
DISPLAYING THEIR COLOURS Insects that build up cardenolides in their bodies often display bright colours and bold patterns featuring stripes or spots. This so-called “aposematic” colouration warns potential predators about their toxicity. Predators quickly learn to recognize these insects’ conspicuous colours and avoid them.
PHOTO André Sarrazin
PHOTO Espace pour la vie (Sonya Charest) PHOTO André Sarrazin
ADAPTING TO TOXICITY
PHOTO André Sarrazin
NECTAR The nectar of milkweed flowers contains a low concentration of cardenolides. It is therefore consumed by a greater number of species than the leaves. Generalist pollinators like bumblebees visit milkweed flowers from time to time. Adult monarchs also feed on milkweed nectar, but unlike their caterpillars, not exclusively on milkweed. Adults can thus be seen foraging for nectar on a wide range of other flowers.
SET OFF ON A MISSION! Would you like to learn more about this plant and the surprising community of insects that lives off it? Take part in Mission Monarch! It’s a participatory science program coordinated by the Insectarium. It involves finding milkweed plants, counting the monarch eggs and caterpillars on them and recording your observations on mission-monarch.org. It’s easy, fun and extremely useful for the study of monarch reproduction. The observational data you record will help scientists gain a better understanding of the breeding habitat of this iconic butterfly.
PHOTO André-Philippe Drapeau-Picard
Some insects have developed a resistance to toxic compounds. They tolerate cardenolides and suffer relatively few physiological effects after ingesting them. What’s more, some insects absolutely love milkweed and eat only that. One example is the monarch caterpillar, but there are also a few other insects, such as the milkweed leaf beetle, the common milkweed beetle and the milkweed tussock moth or milkweed tiger moth. In fact, these insects even store cardenolides in their own bodies so they themselves become toxic to predators. As a result, they both feed and protect themselves from predators at the same time.
URBAN BIODIVERSITY
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CITIES: SOURCES OF SOME SURPRISING ADAPTATIONS • BY FANNY ROHRBACHER
By building cities, human beings have altered the environment and created new habitats. But some plants, birds and insects have
PHOTO Shutterstock/Inspired By Maps
shown an impressive ability to adapt. A closer look at certain species.
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URBAN BIODIVERSITY
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SOME PLANT SPECIES?
WEAVING THEIR WEBS IN THE CITY
According to some studies, dandelions, poison ivy and ragweed could benefit from the increase in CO2 in the air. CO2 is absorbed by plants during photosynthesis, so its greater concentration in cities may well lead to a marked increase in the number of dandelion flowers and seeds between now and the end of the century. At the same time, poison ivy will reportedly become more toxic as it develops a more allergenic form of urushiol (the substance that causes a painful skin rash). It is also anticipated that ragweed will produce more pollen, which will make it more allergenic.
In urban areas, some spiders are no longer afraid to come out of their dark hidey-holes. The triangulate cobweb spider, a cousin of the black widow, seems to have adapted to the glare of public lighting. While young country spiders avoid well-lit places and weave their webs in the dark, young urban spiders weave them in the light. As a result of this change in behaviour, they can now capture the many kinds of prey that are attracted by light, such as moths, which are a meal of choice for triangulate cobweb spiders. This adaptation to artificial light now appears to be broadly anchored in the DNA of these specific populations. The new behaviour does not seem to be shared by other species of spiders, however.
ACROBATIC SWALLOWS The case of the cliff swallow is a typical example of urban adaptation. Some of this swallow’s favourite nesting sites are highway bridges and overpasses. By choosing to live near roads, these birds run the risk of colliding with motor vehicles. Yet in just a few decades, the cliff swallow’s morphology has evolved to adapt to this hazard. With shorter, rounder wings, it is now capable of making faster turns and vertical take-offs to avoid traffic. This evolutionary change has allowed it to survive better than other swallows with longer wings that are less skillful flyers.
TAMER URBAN BIRDS In all the world’s cities, birds are becoming increasingly tolerant of human proximity. This behavioural adaptation is sometimes even printed in their DNA, and so is transmissible to following generations. Argentine burrowing owls, European common blackbirds, Australian black swans—when a pedestrian approaches, these birds that have become urban dwellers now take longer to fly off than their country cousins, and don’t retreat as far. It seems that urban crowds are influencing the evolution of these birds’ anxiety and distrust genes, to the point where they have virtually no fear of possible threats to their safety.
HIGHER TEMPERATURES ARE A HUGE CHALLENGE FOR SOME INSECTS Warmer than the country, the urban environment has an influence on a key characteristic of insects: their size, making some of them bigger and others smaller. When temperatures are higher, insects have to expend more energy to survive. As a result, some of them, like beetles and weevils, grow less if they are unable to offset their growth-related energy losses by eating more. Conversely, the rise in temperatures associated with longer growing seasons could allow other species, like the Russian wheat aphid, to harvest more resources and get bigger. These two mechanisms can also act simultaneously, compensating for one another or cancelling each other out. How will smaller or bigger insects affect their predators? Only time will tell.
CITY DWELLERS, FIELD DWELLERS Fast, persistent urbanization is also having an influence on our own species. Natural selection can occur following epidemics: people who have lived in urban areas for a long time are better adapted and have greater natural resistance to certain infections, like leprosy and tuberculosis. In the future, extreme pollution in megacities could also play a role in changing our genome, activating or deactivating some of our genes or causing mutations. For example, a quarter of the people living in San Antonio de los Cobres, Argentina, now carry mutations that protect them against the arsenic in their drinking water. In short, around the world, people’s genomes are adapting to urban life and will continue to do so in future. ⊗
THE PLANET GETS BACK ON TRACK
FUTURE OF THE PLANET TAKING ON SHADES OF BLUE • BY ISABELLE BURGUN
Are we capable of repairing the environmental mistakes we’ve made? A number of initiatives suggest that we humans can put some indicators back on the right track. The improvement in the state of the ozone layer is a perfect example. This layer of the Earth’s atmosphere that absorbs the sun’s rays and protects us from ultraviolet radiation had a hole in it in the 1980s two and a half times the size of Canada! The cause of the hole was chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chemical compounds used for refrigeration, cleaning and aerosols. Since the adoption of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, and especially since the 2000s, the ozone layer has been on the
PHOTO Shutterstok/asharkyu
mend: its thickness is increasing by 1% to 3% every decade.
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THE PLANET GETS BACK ON TRACK
The current commitment of 196 countries to reduce their emissions of these destructive chemicals brings hope that the ozone layer will regenerate completely in the northern h emisphere and mid-latitude regions by 2030 and in polar regions by 2060. Same story for acid rain, which is down strongly. This form of precipitation damaged large swathes of evergreen forest across North America as a result of the acidity produced by increased sulphur dioxide (SO2) released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. Measures taken in the early 1980s—equipping motor vehicles with catalytic converters, closing some coal-fired power plants and reducing the sulphur content in fuels—have gone a long way to addressing this problem and its harmful effects on the environment.
BIRDS AND WILD LEEK More locally, our list of endangered species is declining. The peregrine falcon population, which for 40 years was known to be vulnerable, has rebounded across Canada. The establishment of a breeding program designed to reintroduce it into its former ecosystem, coupled with the banning of the toxic pesticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), has given a new lease on life to this small winged predator. Even wild leek, an iconic endangered species in Quebec, is enjoying something of a renaissance thanks to forest foodies’ increased ecological awareness and the establishment of a wild leek education and restoration program. In 1989, Quebec was one of the first jurisdictions in Canada to adopt legislation on threatened or vulnerable species, which protects wild leek from harvesting and destruction. The Sem’Ail program, run by the Biodôme de Montréal, has been implemented in six regions of Quebec that have been severely affected by the decline of wild leek: Montérégie, the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Outaouais, Montréal and Laval. This conservation initiative, a citizen science program, resulted in the planting of a million wild leek seeds and the replanting of 440,000 bulbs in forest undergrowth. In addition, an educational part of the program, designed to raise young people’s awareness and turn them into conservation contributors, is continuing in schools. Under the program, students plant wild leek seeds in local forests and thereby create new colonies in their communities.
PHOTO Shutterstock/Carlos Amarillo
THE ATMOSPHERE AND SOIL The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in the fall of 2018, puts forward solutions to limit global warming to less than 1.5°C. Some have already been implemented in an effort to help us resolve the climate predicament: make cities and communities sustainable by focusing on greening and the reduction of heat islands, promote the preservation of clean water and water purification, opt for clean, renewable energy sources, reduce poverty and inequality, but also promote the value of education and raise awareness of environmental issues. The IPCC also proposes geoengineering solutions—such as carbon capture and storage, afforestation and reforestation— designed to modify the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere as a means of reducing global warming. While it is still better to limit the loss of forest diversity and deforestation, replanting trees in areas where there aren’t any (afforestation) would help compensate for the emission of 1 to 7 gigatonnes of CO2 a year between now and 2050 by planting 500 million hectares with new trees. The IPCC has even published a “special report” on climate change and land that suggests solutions to help take care of our land and make it more resilient to climate variability. The purpose of land restoration is to absorb the carbon currently in the atmosphere, so as to mitigate the warming caused by greenhouse gases. The Regeneration Canada1 movement is likewise promoting ways to regenerate soil, such as favouring cover crops that help conserve humidity and reduce weed growth, and going back to some age-old practices: minimizing tillage so as not to exhaust the soil, cultivating edible plants and growing a wide variety of vegetation. Today, we all have tools of change we can use to give shades of blue back to our future. Now it’s up to us to take control of them and make positive changes for our planet! ⊗
← Wild leek.
ORIGINS PLANÉTARIUM RIO TINTO ALCAN ALL YEAR
BACK TO THE BEGINNINGS The exhibition Origins explores our planet’s 4.5 billion years of evolution, focusing on the extraordinary wealth of its geological, plant and animal riches. From the original chaos to the emergence and explosion of life, the photographs lead us along the paths b iodiversity has taken. Lightning, the aurora borealis, myriads of stars, incandescent flows and fountains of lava, earthquakes—all these phenomena attest to the incredible energy that continues to sustain our planet.
PHOTO Olivier Grunewald
The breathtaking pictures on display are the work of photographer Olivier Grunewald and journalist Bernadette Gilbertas. The exhibition opens January 28, 2020, at the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan.
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TAKING ACTION AGAINST ECO -ANXIETY
ECO-ANXIETY … • BY MARION SPÉE
While the scientists who study climate change have been some of the first to admit the fragility of their mental health, fears about climate change are now affecting everyone. “In my clinical practice, I never saw this kind of case a year or two ago,” says psychologist Joe L. Flanders. “Now, I’ve got several cases.” Young people, more likely to bear the brunt of the consequences of a feverish planet, suffer more from green depression than other age groups, it seems. The young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg sank into depression after seeing a documentary on polar bears, before becoming the figurehead of the youth ecology movement. But what is eco-anxiety exactly? Anxiety refers to an increase in stress hormones as the body prepares to defend itself. “If we come face to face with a lion, fear will trigger our
biological defence mechanisms and make us take to our heels. For eco-anxiety, it’s sort of the same thing, in that our survival’s at stake, except that the threat is more abstract,” explains Joe L. Flanders. The American Psychology Association (APA) refers to this issue in a March 2017 report devoted to the consequences of climate change. The report defines eco-anxiety as a “chronic fear of a condemned environment.” But fear sparks a reaction, so maybe this predicament should also be seen as an opportunity for individual or collective initiative. Still, what can we do to cope with the despair that overcomes us when we see temperatures soaring, glaciers melting and species disappearing? Act, act, act. “Doing nothing would be worse,” says Joe L. Flanders. Taking action is the best thing to do to make yourself feel that you’ve got at least some control over the situation and so reduce your anxiety. Act within the realm of possibility, according to the time you have available, at your scale: campaign, write, speak, get involved in your community. Or identify areas where you can make a difference: consumption, plastic, waste, transportation. ⊗
PHOTO Shutterstock/Valmedia
A new concept has recently emerged in the media. More and more people feel as though they have a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. They’re feeling depressed and powerless about ongoing and inexorable climate change. People talk about climate angst, green depression, ecological burnout, but the term that seems to be increasingly used is eco-anxiety.
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TAKING ACTION AGAINST ECO -ANXIETY
… AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT GREEN MUTATION
ORGANIC AND LOCAL
Green your balcony, a wall, your street, put in a garden or grow vegetables: these are concrete things you can do to preserve biodiversity and attract pollinators. The My Space for Life Garden program has lots of ideas you may find useful. A bonus is that everyone benefits from plants, which sequester CO2 and produce O2, capture contaminants and fine particles, and provide islands of coolness.
Opting to buy local, organic fruits and vegetables means eating with the seasons, promoting agriculture that foregoes the use of synthetic products, and fostering a short supply chain.
Planting a tree on your property is a significant contribution, as even a small, slow-growing tree 8 to 15 cm in diameter can sequester 16 kg of CO2 every year. When it reaches its maximum growth rate, it can sequester 360 kg a year. And if it’s close to your house, it can reduce your air-conditioning needs by up to 30%.
Food travels an average of 2,500 km between its place of harvest and your plate (the equivalent of a trip from Montreal to Havana, Cuba), so opting for local produce makes a huge difference in helping to reduce greenhouse gases. Buying Quebec products is also a way to promote the local economy. According to the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ), if every Quebec consumer spent $30 more per year on Quebec products, the Quebec economy would grow by a billion dollars over five years.
ECOLOGICAL GIFTS
In addition, when wrapping gifts, using reusable cloth bags, recycled brown paper or simply old wrapping paper will make a huge dent in the amount of waste you produce. Over 500,000 t of wrapping paper and gift bags are thrown out every year in Canada. The problem is that these bags, the ribbons that decorate them and the tape used on them can’t be recycled.
PHOTO Shutterstock/Antonina Vlasova
Offer experiences that will leave unforgettable memories (cultural outings, sports events, interesting restaurants, etc.), give your time (offer to babysit, help clear snow, etc.) or breathe new life into old things: simple alternatives to buying new items for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and other holidays.
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TAKING ACTION AGAINST ECO -ANXIETY
ACTIVE OR COLLECTIVE TRANSPORT
PHOTO Shutterstock/Halfpoint
Opting for active transport, public transit, carsharing, carpooling or an electric vehicle, and avoiding single car occupancy, is another way to meaningfully reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. In the transportation sector, single occupancy vehicles are responsible for over 75% of such emissions. Over short distances, taking your bike is quicker than taking your car and helps to prevent traffic jams. Half of the people who work in cities could cycle to work because they live within 8 km of their workplace. For longer trips, a carsharing vehicle can replace 9 to 13 personal vehicles, while a bus can carry the equivalent of 40 to 50 cars.
REUSE YOUR CONTAINERS Opting for a reusable water bottle is a way to save on both water and energy! It means you don’t have to use plastic bottles. Manufacturing one plastic bottle requires 3 litres of water and 0.25 litres of oil, releases 0.09 kg of CO2 and uses up to 2,000 times more energy than the treatment and supply of tap water. What’s more, a plastic bottle takes 1,000 years to decompose.
PHOTO Shutterstock/Igisheva Maria
For coffee, one of Canadians’ favourite beverages, you can opt for a reusable cup and say good-bye to disposable ones, which aren’t recyclable. Cardboard cups are coated with a waterproof film and topped with a plastic cover. If you drink a medium-sized coffee (16 oz or 475 ml) from a stainless steel travel cup, for example, you’ll be producing just one fifth of the CO2 generated for a disposable cup.
PHOTO Shutterstock/Alxcrs
Upon reopening, the Biodôme will be showcasing instigators of change. You’ll discover organizations and individuals who are working to protect the environment. For even more ideas, check out the websites of Equiterre (equiterre.org), Unpointcinq (unpointcinq.ca) or Itallstartswithme (https://julienvidal6.wixsite.com/ itallstartswithme).
CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
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LET’S TALK CONSERVATION • BY MARION SPÉE
There was a time when zoos exhibited wild, exotic animals and collected species of all kinds simply so visitors could marvel at them. “Nowadays, modern zoological institutions still try to raise people’s awareness of the beauty of nature and animals, but they also have a role to play in helping to maintain biodiversity and conserving endangered species,” says Emiko Wong, head of the live collections and research division at the Biodôme de Montréal. Progress has been made.
PHOTO Shutterstock/Justin Black
↓ The Panamanian golden frog.
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CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
Standards have been developed by independent organizations to provide wild species in captivity with the highest levels of animal care, so as to ensure their integrity, health and well-being. In Canada, the organization in charge of this is CAZA (Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums). It has a three-fold mission: education, research and conservation. At the Biodôme, for instance, the basic conservation program focuses on species that are part of a captive population management plan, in cooperation with all other institutions that have the same species. The idea is to maintain a genetically healthy population even as animals are moved around and exchanged between institutions. “We try to make sure that individuals with a similar genetic make-up don’t mate, and that instead sufficient genetic mixing occurs,” says Ms. Wong. The other objective of this type of program is to constitute a sort of “reserve” of various species that could be of use in the event of an ecological disaster. There are also on-site conservation programs, at the Biodôme, as well as at the Jardin botanique and the Insectarium, that seek to reverse the decline of endangered species populations. These programs are structured so that a part of the species’ life cycle takes place in enclosures or greenhouses, and then the individuals are reintroduced into the wild.
AT THE BIODÔME: THE PANAMANIAN GOLDEN FROG The Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) is a an ecological and cultural symbol of Panama. But it hasn’t been seen in the wild since 2009. So the Biodôme, along with 50 other zoological institutions in the United States and Canada, has undertaken to protect it by participating in an effort to maintain a genetically healthy population. The challenge is primarily environmental. “The frogs come down from the mountains and lay their eggs in streams where there’s a lot of current. In a zoo, we have to be able to recreate optimal conditions for the females to lay their eggs: reproduce a waterfall, a constant movement of water,” says animal care technician Roxan Ouimet. In practice, couples mate by engaging in amplexus, where the male hitches a ride on the female’s back. Once the female finds an appropriate place, she releases her eggs and the male fertilizes them. There is a risk, however, that if if she does not find the appropriate place to lay, the eggs will remain in her abdomen, and she can die as a result.
Today, there are some 1,600 Panamanian golden frogs in captivity. The ultimate stage, of course, is to be able to reintroduce them into the wild. “But first,” notes Ms. Ouimet, “the parasitic chytrid fungi that have wiped out the frog populations in their natural habitat, will have to be eliminated.”
AT THE INSECTARIUM: A MONITORING NETWORK FOR QUEBEC FLYING INSECT POPULATIONS In temperate regions of the world, insect populations are declining dramatically. Quebec is no exception to this trend, but it has no monitoring infrastructure for quantifying the phenomenon. A new flying insect monitoring project was initiated in the winter of 2018–19. It’s the first of its kind in Quebec. The goal is to set up insect traps so as to be able to document not just the diversity and abundance, but also the biomass of various groups of indicators. The more we know about our insects, the better we’ll be able to protect them. “Initially, we want to test the methodology to make sure it is simple and effective, because the traps will be operated by volunteer collaborators,” says entomologist Michel Saint-Germain. Two sites have been equipped with traps for intercepting insects in flight: the Parc national d’Oka and the Parc-nature de la Pointe-aux-Prairies. “These traps catch flying insects that move upward when they encounter an obstacle, like flies or wasps, but also those that let themselves drop down, like most beetles or crickets,” notes Mr. Saint-Germain. Processing samples of this kind is demanding in terms of time and expertise. The first step is to classify the collected insects into major groups and take biomass measurements. “This parameter is a better indicator than simple abundance,” the entomologist says, “because an insect’s impact on its ecosystem is partly a function of its weight.” The objective over the next three years is to have 15 or so stations operating every year. It’s also to cover areas that constitute threats to varying degrees in order to produce an accurate picture of the current situation, for instance with respect to the degree of urbanization or intensive agricultural practices.
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CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
AT THE JARDIN BOTANIQUE: FALSE HOP SEDGE False hop sedge (Carex lupuliformis) grows in shoreline wetlands. In Quebec, it has threatened species status, the most critical level. In 2005, there were only three populations (groups of individual plants), totalling just 30 or so plants in all. In an effort to increase this very low number, a conservation and reintroduction project was launched in 2006. The idea was to grow the sedge from seed in greenhouses and reintroduce the young plants into the wild. “Often, when it’s a question of rare plants, people think that the seeds have poor viability. But, in a greenhouse, we have success rates of 98%,” notes botanist Stéphanie Pellerin enthusiastically. So it’s not hard to grow false hop sedge, but reintroducing it into the wild is another matter. “At the start of the project, we didn’t know much about its preferred habitat, so we went through a lot of trial and error,” she explains. It has to be said that false hop sedge is fickle: it likes habitats that are not too shady, not too bright, not too flooded, nor too dry either. The team can be proud now that it has managed to reintroduce over 200 plants into the wild, which is around seven times more than in 2005, grouped into a dozen or so populations. The results are very encouraging. False hop sedge is on the right track, and in good hands!
PHOTO Jacques Labrecque
⊗
← False hop sedge.
LET’S ALL PULL TOGETHER, ONE ECO-ACTION AT A TIME • BY VALÉRIE LEVÉE
Climate change and the need to protect the environment make us want to act, but the sheer immensity of the task seems to p aralyse the eco-citizen in us. Here are four examples of community engagement initiatives illustrating that each of us has the power to act.
In 1992, math and science teacher Yvon Camirand launched the educational activity Un arbre – Une vie [A tree – A life]. The idea was for students to germinate an acorn and follow the development of their oak until it was time to plant it. Since then, lots of schools have taken up the activity, and over 25 years, 26,000 trees have been planted! While Yvon Camirand took the first step and continues to promote the program, other teachers have taken up the baton and become the driving force behind thousands of young people who have planted their own trees.
ALLEYS WAITING TO BE GREENED In the Rosemont neighbourhood of Montreal, a group of residents led by David-Alexandre Boutin have transformed a vacant lot that no one used, adjacent to Place Basile-Patenaude, into an edible alley. A true community pantry open to all, it grows corn, potatoes, grapes and other fruits and vegetables, including Indigenous food plants like elderberry and serviceberry. The number of green alleys is growing by leaps and bounds in Montreal, and the trend is spreading to Quebec City. Each alley has its own history and personality, created by the people who live along it. Other alleys and abandoned lots are waiting for their turn to be greened.
Far from the major centres, rural residents are also doing bold and imaginative things for the environment. On Quebec’s North Shore, Le Grenier boreal, which describes itself as a Minganie agroforestry solidarity cooperative, was established in 2013 . The coop harvests wild blueberries, mushrooms and cloudberries, and grows strawberries, tomatoes and cucumber under glass. With a sustainable development mind set, Le Grenier boreal combines economic activity with respect for the environment. If strawberries can grow in Minganie, why not elsewhere?
THEY’RE MARCHING FOR THE CLIMATE AND THEIR FUTURE Inspired by Greta Thunberg, Sara Montpetit, a student at Robert Gravel school, founded the movement Pour le futur Montréal, and Albert Lalonde, a student at Joseph François Perrault school, decided to join forces with her. Every Friday, since the start of 2019, they’ve been organizing marches and other activities focused on the climate and their future. And they’ve kept it up even in the summer, because, as they point out, the planet never takes a vacation. Motivated by the presence of the young Swedish activist, hundreds of thousands of people, of all ages, came out to show their support in the streets of Montréal on September 27, 2019, and the movement is continuing. ⊗
These are just four instances among many. If you visit the exhibition It's time to act at the Biodôme, you’ll discover a host of inspirational environmental initiatives. Setting examples to follow, these citizens are all acting in their own way to protect the environment, and inspiring others to get involved, too. Maybe it’s time for you, for all of us, to swing into action by following their example or coming up with our own initiative?
PHOTO Arrondissement Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie
AN INFECTIOUS INITIATIVE
STRAWBERRIES IN MINGANIE!
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BIRTH OF THE EARTH
WHERE DOES THE EARTH’S WATER COME FROM? • B Y ANDRÉ GRANDCHAMPS
There is no denying that the presence of water on the Earth was a determining factor in the appearance of life. But how did the water get there? There are two theories about this crucial stage that occurred some 150 million years after the beginning of the formation of our planet.
FROM THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH In the first of the two theories, geologists and astronomers put forward the hypothesis that the water came from the Earth itself. The solar system came into existence some 4.56 billion years ago, when a cloud of gas and dust collapsed in on itself. The vast majority of the matter became concentrated at the centre of the cloud to form the Sun. The residual matter began orbiting around the sun in the form of a disk inside which there were microscopic ice-covered particles of dust.
ICE FROM COMETS There is also a second theory about the appearance of life-giving water on our planet. Some astronomers hypothesize that our water comes from comets, the agglomerations of rock coated in a thick layer of ice that have crashed into the Earth’s surface. However, doubt has been cast on this theory by space exploration, which has shown that the molecular signature of the water in comets is different from that of the water on Earth. The study of the water contained in primitive meteorites, which formed at the same time as the embryonic planets, shows that it is similar to the water in the Earth’s oceans. It is therefore more likely that the water on Earth comes from this type of rock, which supports the first theory. ⊗
As a result of collisions, the dust particles fused together into larger particles and eventually formed embryos of planets. The Earth, like all the planets in our solar system, came into being as one of these embryos.
As the Earth’s temperature was high in those early years, the water quickly evaporated to form an atmosphere. It wasn’t until the temperature had fallen sufficiently and the magma had created a solid crust at the Earth’s surface that the water vapour in the atmosphere finally fell to the ground in the form of liquid water.
↓
PHOTO Shutterstock/Boiarkina Marina
The water covering these dust particles thus found itself trapped in the rocks that originally formed the young planet Earth. When magma started being forced up from the depths by volcanic activity, the water was pushed up to the surface along with it.
The appearance of water on the Earth is just one of the many fascinating stages in the formation of our blue planet. Starting April 28, the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan will be showing “ Birth of Planet Earth,” a film that tells this captivating story!
GARDENS OF LIGHT JARDIN BOTANIQUE SEPTEMBER 4 TO NOVEMBER 1
PANGU: THE GIANT WHO CREATED THE WORLD • B Y SYLVIE GOULET
The story goes that before the world existed, the universe was like an enormous egg in which the Sky and the Earth were intermingled. Within the egg, everything was chaos and darkness. Yet Pangu slept there peacefully. When he awoke, 18,000 years later, he opened up his huge hands and, in a powerful clap that sounded like thunder, smashed the shell of the egg that had become too small for him. All the elements that had been frozen for thousands of years were scattered in all directions.
PHOTO
Claude Lafond
Pangu then had to work for another 18,000 years to put them all back in place. He began by holding the Sky at arm’s length to separate it from the Earth. Eventually, exhausted from his exertions, he collapsed. His body then began to be transformed. His flesh turned into fertile soil, his blood into rivers, his sweat into rain, his bones into precious stones, his hair into trees and plants, his eyes into the Sun and the Moon, his breath into the wind, his voice into thunder, and his body’s lice and fleas into human beings.
PROGRAM
ORIGINS
THE GREAT GARDENING WEEKEND
THE GREAT PUMPKIN BALL
PLANÉTARIUM RIO TINTO ALCAN
JARDIN BOTANIQUE
JARDIN BOTANIQUE
ALL YEAR
MAY 22 TO 24
OCTOBER 2 TO NOVEMBER 1
THE ODD PLANTS OF Mrs Z
SAVOUR YOUR GARDEN
JARDIN BOTANIQUE
JARDIN BOTANIQUE
VOYAGER - THE NEVER-ENDING JOURNEY
FEBRUARY 26 TO APRIL 26
JUNE 26 TO AUGUST 30
PLANÉTARIUM RIO TINTO ALCAN STARTING NOVEMBER 3
LUCIA, THE SECRETS OF SHOOTING STARS
THE ARTS PUT ON A SHOW AT THE GARDEN
RESEARCHERS’ NIGHT
PLANÉTARIUM RIO TINTO ALCAN
JARDIN BOTANIQUE
PLANÉTARIUM RIO TINTO ALCAN
STARTING FEBRUARY 29
JUNE 21 TO AUGUST 30
NOVEMBER 13
BIODÔME
MONARCH FIESTA
EQUINOXE TALK
GRAND RE-OPENING
INSECTARIUM
PLANÉTARIUM RIO TINTO ALCAN
SPRING
AUGUST 21 AND 23
MARCH 19 AND OCTOBER 23
BIRTH OF PLANET EARTH
GARDENS OF LIGHT
UP CLOSE WITH AN EXPERT
PLANÉTARIUM RIO TINTO ALCAN
JARDIN BOTANIQUE
SEE WEBSITE FOR DATES &
STARTING APRIL 28
SEPTEMBER 4 TO NOVEMBER 1
LOCATIONS
Our thanks to Rio Tinto for its generous contribution
#SpaceForLife Online ticketing: montrealspaceforlife.ca
