Comment on Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing.
dumpsterlid@lemmy.world 8 months agoWhile swamps are “gross” they are actually the cleanest things in nature on the other hand.
Wetlands are massive water quality processors, they are the opposite of dirty or gross, though I completely understand that feeling that stomping through thick mud is gross.
Handle checks out. Lol swamps definitely cleaner than your average dumpster!
I think the unsettling thing is that the whole biome is crawling or buzzing. Feeling like inhaling will choke you on a gnat cloud, every surface has some grouchy venomous thing that’ll stick ya, and that “log” over there is just waiting for something to death-roll today, as it floats across murky water you can’t see under.
Fascinating places! But I can see why they’re not exactly attractive for humans.
True I don’t mean to insinuate there aren’t dangerous creatures in swamps, they are the cities of nature, you find everything there.
Like real cities though, there is a safety in the crowd, in the wild variety of different forms and tendencies. It means that no particular process or force is likely to swing wildly out of control, no animal is going to overrun the swamp. If the swamp becomes full of some icky animal, let’s say cockroaches, then the swamp will soon become full of bullfrogs and other predators. Things are smoothed out in a very complex way that makes swamps a much “safer” environment than you might expect because the constant ecological conversation between everything in the swamp keeps things in check.
What happens when that system breaks down is like what you see with ticks in the eastern US. The general hardwood landscapes of the east have had their ecological engine thrown so far out of whack that tick populations are skyrocketing along with tick borne diseases. The forests are not functioning like a swamp where when one element goes way out of whack it is mediated by another.
It is no coincidence that freshwater wetlands have been erased wholesale from the landscape of America, filled in, polluted beyond function or destroyed.
Ah! I can’t believe I didn’t reply to this!!!
I have been thinking about this comment for a very long time, and I really wanted to thank you for putting so much thought into it, as I feel a lot more educated about swamps and I think anyone lucky enough to find it will surely feel the same! This was an enlightening and fascinating read.
I read it to my wife too, who’s an Earth & Environmental Science major, and she thought it was cool. :D
It’s fascinating to me especially what you said about the parasite/tick situation spiraling out of control. I often wondered how the heck anybody “walked through the woods behind the house” or whatnot without being covered in the nasty things, and this explains so much.
I used to live in NorthEast Oklahoma for a minute. There were nasty little things called “chiggers” living in the grass that appeared as red dust on your skin but would start stinging and biting really badly. The Arizona Bark Scorpions out there were also insanely, ridiculously numerous.
The bit about Mexico City was mind blowing too. It explains why the whole place is slowly sinking. A PBS documentary called “Water Wars” covered this pretty well. It’s dire stuff…
Wishing you all the best and thank you again for such an awesome comment. I’ve never been happier to get a reply to an opinion I just spouted off on the internet for conversation’s sake! XD
Hey thank you for your thoughtful response as well, the fediverse is a pretty cool place I think!
That actually interesting tho
That sounds kinda like saying “dishwater is clean”. It’s used in cleaning, but I wouldn’t call it clean
Waterdoc@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Clean is relative, there are lots of contaminants in wetland water that make it unsafe. They are incredibly important and very useful for naturally cleaning water, but please don’t drink the swamp water.
teft@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You’re not the boss of me.
dumpsterlid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Who put those contaminants there though?
Swamp creatures didn’t, the swamp didn’t, we did.
Waterdoc@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Not not contaminants are anthropogenic. Decomposing organic matter, heavy metals from soil and rock erosion, microorganisms and microbial by-products all naturally occur in wetlands and are dangerous to us. There’s nothing wrong with that, just don’t drink it or get it in open wounds :)
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
There are some Dutch wetlands where the natural arsenic levels are high enough that by picking up a bucket of dirt and then placing it back down, you are technically committing an environmental crime.
There’s so much arsenic in the ground, it’s killing the beavers who chew on the trees that grow there (birches don’t care, beavers do).
And it’s been there since before humans even lived there. Just naturally occurring pollution.