Wild Things 6 of 6 – Merseyside

Well it’s here. The last episode of Wild Things. It’s been a fantastic journey, especially for people like me who are interested in plants, fungi, and lichens; but that don’t yet know much about them. Not only have we learned about the plants that are thriving and those barely surviving, but we’ve learned some basics about how plants work.

Anyway, on to the episode…
Joining the team on the Merseyside, they split up to investigate the wild things. Chris starts with the art installation ‘Another Place’ by Anthony Gormley of 100 life size statues looking out onto the busy shipping lanes of Liverpool docks. Finding that these statues have been covered by the Australian barnacle.
These barnacles arrived in the 1940s, hitching a ride on the ships. Slowing a ship by up to 10%, these barnacles can be a real pain and Sally shows us that they can even grip the most smooth surface made by science – the non-stick coating on frying pans! Before growing a shell, the baby barnacle, or cyprid needs to find a place to stick to so it can move on to the next stage of its life. Using a light microscope we see the cyprids slide around the pan. Using its antennae it find purchase it tightens its hold – permanently – exuding a sort of biological cement. These long fibres bind together very tightly allowing the barnacle to make the connection it needs.

Next Chris finds a special moss; the tall clustered thread moss. Special not only because it was only found on the zinc spoils of old lead moss, or because when these mines closed it was on the brink of extinction due to habitat loss, but because it have found a new habitat. This new habitat is under metal fencing, under what Chris called the metallic drip zone. The rain runs down the fence taking with it small deposits of metal from the fence with it. This moss really needs such high metal content to thrive. Chris runs an experiment on the alpine penny cress to give us an idea of what it does with this metal. Using a x-ray image, we see that at cell level the plant stores the zinc just under the skin, but still in the upper layer of cells. This makes it difficult for animals to eat the plant and for the tall clustered thread moss, this has helped it extend its range.

In part two we investigate a pond plant that does need light to grow. This plant is the New Zealand pygmyweed and it’s clogging up our ponds and waterways . From next to no plants on the map 50 years ago, it is now prevalent throughout the UK and is on a government black list. A quick Internet search brings up loads of information on management and eradication of this species – it has even been known to close canals. Plants use light to photosynthesise and store carbon dioxide with the process stopping during hours of no light. The pygmyweed stores carbon dioxide throughout the day and night. It stores the carbon dioxide as malic acid, when the sun comes up it then uses this during photosynthesis. In its native habitat it cannot photosynthesise during the day because its leaves would be scorched. Therefore it has evolved to grow in the cool of the night, but over here in Britain is can grow for around 20 hours each day. This enables it to out complete all of the native plants to Britain, growing up to 6 inches ever 24 hours. Even when Trevor liquidises the pygmyweed, he explains that even a branch of this plant 5mm long will grow into a new plant! The abilities of plants is wondrous – but sometimes no good for a healthy ecosystem in Britain. Therefore small pieces carried by birds can populate new ponds and waterways. Perhaps an insect from its native homeland can help us control this plant by acting as a biocontrol.

Built 400 years ago, Speke Hall http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/speke-hall/ is our last stop. It was built when Liverpool was a farming settlement made of around 500 people. What are we doing here – we’re supposed to be investigating industrial Liverpool, I hear you ask! Well hold your horses as Sally has the explanation. The timbers that were used to build Speke Hall had lichens growing on them before they were cut down. The then died leaving little dots – the dead bodies of lichens. Using the light microscope we can look at the 500 year old spores of lichens that used to flourish in this area. The spores of this lichen that they find has never been recorded in Liverpool – showing that industry has polluted the air and destroyed the habitat for this lichen. But not forever, this lichen – the Arthonia Radiata, is making a comeback as our air gets cleaner due to the decline in heavy industry.

Well peeps, that’s the end of the series. But it doesn’t have to be an end to our learning on the endlessly fascinating topic of plants and their habitats. One place to start is to follow the team on twitter:

@DigChrisMyers 

@DrTrevorDines 

@eaton_sally