My Journey

In September, 2009, this Canadian boy started a masters program the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, learning about ecology and health, middle-eastern politics and the environment, and how a dire problem may facilitate a region's coming together for the better. This Blog is a record of my head-first dive into this immense world.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Nature's Gone Wild!

Ask most people when Spring arrives, and they'll answer March 21st.  This, after all, is the first official day of spring.  But most people know that these sorts of dates and demarcations are really artificial means of organizing the world around us into neat packages for easier digestion.  Today was a real reminder of that.  Just four or five days ago, the weather was still in some sort of strange argument with itself - dust blew this way and that, clouds would cover the sun and threaten rain only to be on their way five minutes later, and the temperature took a few running starts at heating up, only to balk at the last minute.  It reminded me a lot of the way that winter blew in here.  But over the past few days it's like someone flipped a switch! 

(for those not really into science, you can skip this paragraph :-)  People familiar with ecological science (or anything to do with systems thinking actually, be it body systems or ecosystems) know that in the last few decades, the concept of non-linear dynamics has gone from a fringe way of thinking to a basic structuring element of most systems theories.  It's pretty simple to understand, actually.  Linear dynamics is like a straight line on a graph - moving in one direction a specific amount (say, a raise in temperature five degrees), other factors vary proportionally (say, the metabolism of a certain animal increases X amount).  Non-linear dynamics introduces exponential and even unpredictable varying into the mix, often with thresholds beyond which the whole system changes.  Let's take the temperature change of five degrees.  This change might allow an animal to forage for food a little bit longer per day, and vary in a linear way for a while.  But increase the temperature one degree more, and you may hit a threshold beyond which, say, a certain hormone is produced at X amount, leading to a cascade of physiological events concluding with the idea in its little head "Hey, that female/male I didn't really think about yesterday is really cute today!"  Linear thinking would have assumed, given that temperature affects mating behavior, that a little increment in temperature means a little increment in behavior.  But we now know that these sorts of thresholds are everywhere, and that  many systems function pretty much the same within a certain set of parameters, but when they hit their thresholds, they can change exceptionally quickly!
 
    That example about the animal wasn't just out of thin air.  This is an incredibly hormonal time of year!  They don't call it the birds and the bees for nothing.  And this is an especially wonderful place to be if you love birds.  You can see why on this map:

 
   
    That's right.  For whatever evolutionary or historical reason, a HUGE proportion of bird migration routes in Africa, Asia, and Europe pass right through Eilat and right overhead!  So we're seeing some exotic dances from some exotic birds.

    Now, being large animals ourselves, we tend to have a normative idea of sexual behavior that we wouldn't really thinking of applying to any other area of life.  But with a little harmless anthropomorphizing, we could, without being too far off, say that the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants are getting pretty frisky as well.  And they're pretty shameless about it too, hanging their reproductive organs out in open air for everyone to see, adorning them with all sorts of shapes and colors, perfuming themselves and sending the scent out onto the wind.  They're a little kinky too, needing a third party involved in most instances for a successful sexual act.

Anyway, it's still cool enough around here to be somewhat comfortable in the direct sunlight at midday, and for the animals to get out and be rowdy at the same time.  Like all things though, its time will come and go, giving way to the oppressive heat that drives everyone inside and underground between sunrise and sunset.  I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

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