Edge of the Outback

Rainbow!

I figured the last post was a bit much to digest without lightheartedness and images, so I decided I had to bite the bullet and use some of my precious internet to upload another picture. During rains, this part of South Australia has what has been described to me as “a stupid amount of rainbows,” and I try to capture every one of them in a picture. This picture of a rainbow is particularly cool because it also has part of a seawater greenhouse in it. And trucks.

When I think of how I might solve a technical problem, I often look to the living things around me for inspiration. Almost every problem we come across today, life has had millions of years (at least) of exposure to; as a result, there are many examples at every level of biology that can be used as models for modern, human concerns.

In order to properly develop and reproduce, cells (and organisms as a whole) require certain conditions for their complex parts to function; these sets of idealized conditions are collectively called homeostasis. The pursuit of homeostasis is everything that anything living does when it is not reproducing. It is a struggle for balance in a dynamic world governed by the tendency to proceed towards disorder. Hmm, facilitating predictable conditions by harnessing the natural flow of energy? It certainly seems to me that life’s mechanisms for maintaining homeostasis are excellent case studies in practical problem solving.

Why design a solution anew when nature has probably selected for a similar, efficient solution already? Whether the design is purely structural or more infrastructural, everything from proteins, signaling pathways, cell structure, anatomy, through to even an organism’s behavior and the social organization of different species has the potential to lend insight. The more that can be understood about life, the more of such examples we have. It is primarily with this mindset that I approach when pondering practical problems.

While not everything in life is relevant to what you look at, if you know where to look you can usually get a good idea of what might work. Anything highly conserved, or anything that came about independently across many different species is usually a good place to start, although niche tasks may require looking for specialty processes in organisms suited to such a niche.

Why am I even posting this? Isn’t this blog supposed to be about my internship? Well, I don’t feel like I should be discussing every aspect of my work, for one. Whether it is because they are basic construction tasks not worthy of mention or interesting design features that it might not do to share, I have little to say either way. My other reason is that, as a biology major in a working environment decidedly different from a lab, I want to show that an education in microbiology does not at all relegate one to a laboratory. It is the thought process cultivated and the vast trove of biological models that are truly valuable, and with effort these skills and lessons can be applied in situations far beyond the petri dishes and gels of a sterile room with tile floors and black countertops. Learning from life, no matter how in-depth your work may be, can still engage you in the world more than it removes you through specialization. This blog post is to show that despite being steeped in an academic, scientific background, what one thus learns can readily be used for addressing a wide variety of practical problems, the world over.

:'(

While this is only with regard to one specific location within Australia, this widespread sentiment makes fulfilling my bee masterplan nigh impossible.

The defining property of a greenhouse, with regard to pollination, is the lack of wind. Other properties (design, greenhouse materials, crops involved, and temperature) are important, but none dictate the need for pollination more than the lack of a breeze. What insect, avian, and mammalian pollinators cannot do, the wind does; therefore, the pollination plan in a greenhouse is that much more crucial.

The question here is, what to do for pollination? Bees are a natural response to this question, and indeed, bees are used. However, Honeybees are not appropriate for two main reasons: 1) aggression, and 2) inefficient pollination methods. Honeybees can be aggressive, especially the increasingly common Africanized varieties. While generally blasé, their reaction to provocation is like a string of decorative lights: if one goes out, they all go out. The latent and ever-present threat makes honeybees in a greenhouse a liability more than a boon. Also, unlike some other varieties of bee, honeybees do not vibrate their flight muscles while on flowers; this makes the honeybee less effective at shaking loose pollen both onto themselves from the anthers, and off of themselves into stamen. Their inability to do this buzz pollination makes honeybees less effective than some other bees.

Now we must ask, what bee to use? Most greenhouse and hydroponic growers today use bumblebees, due to the bee’s placid disposition, the bee’s ability to buzz pollinate, and the facility with which bumblebees may be raised, maintained, and replaced. While there are other appropriate varieties of bee, these varieties are largely experimental or untried. Yet other greenhouse growers use human-developed methods of pollination, which in commercial greenhouse operations overwhelmingly means a device that looks and operates much like an electric toothbrush with a fuzzy brush head. In situations where labor is not at a premium (or the crop is very expensive, or bumbles are illegal), it can be cheaper to eschew the bumbles and release the inner bee. For example, a challenge inherent to working in Australia is that bumblebees do not exist on the mainland and are banned from import.

Okay, so I’ve gone over what makes an appropriate pollinator in the greenhouse, and what is most commonly used the world over as well as in Australia. However, I am not working at a unique greenhouse to do what is tried and true. I think there is potential in other bees, one of which could be applied to the Australian greenhouse, and the other of which uniquely fits the greenhouse conditions very well. The latter I shall keep to myself, as that bee is not available in Australia and my conditions for its use are original enough to warrant a tactful silence. The former, however, I shall discuss, and it is none other than the Australian blue-banded bee.

You know the deal. No pictures, no excessive writing. “Bees, Part III: Blue-Banded Bees” will be the next chapter in this installation. I’m still waiting on some information there, so it may be a while before I present that topic.

With the media of the past few years abuzz about honeybees dying off, a lot more people have been getting familiar with the importance of bees, – and more comprehensively, pollinators – to the crops we grow. Pollinators, bees included, are estimated to contribute to about 9.5% of world agriculture. Think about it. Almost every crop except grains and tubers (which pollinate by wind) depends on pollinators, and many of them heavily. Every time you eat almonds, asparagus, avocados, a melon, blueberries, apples, kiwifruit, macadamia nuts, pears, plums, pumpkins, cranberries, or drink tea, coffee, hot cocoa, or flavor your cake with vanilla, consider that those agricultural products – and many, many more – are almost entirely dependent on pollinators.

Honeybees are the number one managed pollinator for agriculture, due to our ability to manage honeybee hives. However, other pollinators are also very important. A few examples:

-       Only humans, hummingbirds, or certain bees of the Melipona species can pollinate vanilla flowers.

-       Non-managed social bees can play a large role in coffee flower pollination.

-       While not yet known for sure, it is thought that any of a variety of small flies are the main pollinator(s) of cocoa flowers.

While the crops mentioned are admittedly specialty crops, consider how often you see products derived from the fruits of these plants; consider as well that some of these other pollinators pollinate many kinds of crops, and not just the ones listed above. For that matter, not every pollinator is appropriate in every agricultural situation. In greenhouses, for example, honeybees don’t even play a role. Greenhouses are the domain of the bumblebee.

I have no images for this post, so I’ll stop here for now. No pictures and lots of words is the basic formula for a bored blog reader. “Bees, Part II: Bees in a Greenhouse” is complete and on the shelf, waiting to be posted (within the next two days). Get ready!

Doubting what I say? Curious to learn more about pollination in agriculture? Here are a few papers that were useful in writing this blog post, for your reading enjoyment. For more of my sources, feel free to contact me at: lflahert@haverford.edu

Gallai, N., Salles, J-M., Settele, J., and Vaissière, B.E. 2009. Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline. Ecological Economics. 68:810-821.

Morse, R. A., Calderone, N. W. 2000. The Value of Honey Bees as Pollinators of U.S. Crops in 2000. Bee Culture. March:1-15.

Veddeler, D., Olschewski, R., Tscharntke, T., and Klein, A-M. 2008. The contribution of non-managed social bees to coffee production: new economic insights based on farm-scale yield data. Agroforestry Systems. 73:109-114.

Free, J. B. 1993. Insect Pollination of Crops. Academic Press, London, UK. 398-390.

Pieces fall together this week, with the build team, design team, and greenhouse components all converging on the build site. I hope to put up at least two major updates, somewhere along the lines of “meet the team” and “bees.” Perhaps meeting the team will be done in several posts… I don’t yet know how I will present it. If I have any more time, I may discuss my thoughts on the region of South Australia in which I currently abide, and if I’m really free I’ll have something to say about water purification or greenhouses.

REGARDLESS, expect lots of wholesome goodness. At the very least you will see who I work with, learn about several species of bee, and hear my thoughts on the potential for said bees in greenhouse systems. Check daily for updates!

Seriously. Today, I have it all. First, however, let me explain why “it all” has not made an appearance sooner.

Internet here is expensive. It is paid for by gigabytes down/uploaded, and the only nice thing is that it is wireless broadband. On a miserly budget, I had to find a way around wasting my 1 GB ($80) limit. This lead me to the Port Augusta library, where I am now a member and have 31.5 MB of free daily internet. Every time you see pictures in my posts, imagine me in a library: because that’s where I was when I posted.

The Build Site

The Build Site

About 12 kilometers south of town, two kilometers down a dirt road, is a patch of land owned by Seawater Greenhouse (Australia), Pty Ltd. The main feature is the leveled, fenced-off area you see here, although there is more to it than that. The most common flora consists of five scrub plants, and occasionally two tree types. Fauna present: kangaroos, parrots, and horses (there are other things, but honestly? You probably don’t care right now). The horses have remained elusive, but apparently they were considered to be handed over when we got the land… I’m curious as to whether or not they are tame. Parrots are fleeting in their appearance, but I did manage to catch a flock of over fifty rose-breasted cockatoos in the park yesterday, and I’ve been told that those and other species have been spotted on and around our property.

Before I get to jump into the science content of the internship, the greenhouse must be completed. The equivalent situation at Haverford would be having to build the INSC before you get to use its science labs. Basic labor, engineering, and design are crucial here, so if I have anything to say in the next few weeks (keep in mind that this project is someone else’s intellectual property, so there will be limits) it will be either about construction and design or local flavour, almost exclusively.

A kangaroo.

Cockatoos in the park.

Simple, but mind- (and hand-) numbing work.

What I’ve been up to: Fencing v. 1.0

For athletics, I have fenced since junior high school. But never like this. This kind of fencing requires only fasteners (which look like oversize staples), pliers, and very strong hands. This fencing is what I did today and yesterday. To keep out the honest beast, the build site needed to be fenced off: I was asked to expedite the process, and a sore left hand later I can say I have certainly done so.

Local Flavo(u)r

Port Augusta center, the wharf, and the park, as seen from the bridge to the West side

Port Augusta is a town of about 14,000: the fourth biggest in South Australia, I hear. About 4,000 people work at the local coal power plant, which supplies the northern reaches of the inhabited region with its electricity. While I haven’t the exact numbers on other lines of employ, my impression is that overall, Port Augusta is a community where blue-collar jobs predominate. Overall, the town is safe, the people are pleasant, and the winter climate is ideal. The region is excellent for anyone who enjoys pursuing outdoor activities, and who enjoys lots of space. If I were to attempt a comparison to a US state, I would say that this part of Australia is most like Texas (this will be explained in a later post), although both regions are undoubtedly of their own unique character.

Port Augusta power plant.

What more need be said?

And That’s All, Folks

Sorry folks, but it looks as if I’m reaching my internet limit. Keep checking in to see and read of cool new things. Thanks to all who have bothered to read, and more thanks to those brave enough to post! I shall end the post with a quote from Voltaire’s Candide, quoting Cacambo, specifically: “‘when one man cannot get what he wants in one world, he finds it in another. And isn’t one of life’s great pleasures to see new places and do new things?’” (let us ignore the fact that this was written in a work of satire: in my context, let us say that what I want is Vegemite or a good brekky at Hungry Jack’s).

Brekky at 6 AM!

What kind of weather do you think of when the Australian bush comes to mind? Certainly not this:

winter weather blues

But that’s what we’ve got. It’s late fall going into winter down under, and that means it gets a little wet – even in the dry parts of the driest Aussie state. Now, that’s not to say the weather is going to be rainy or cold, because the forecast this week is 19 degrees (mid 60′s in Fahrenheit) and sunny. Average rainfall here is about 250 mm/year, with the wettest months (~25 mm/month, or a bit less than 1 inch) during the winter. For comparison, that a hair under three times less rain from Port Augusta’s wettest month to Philadelphia’s driest.

Regardless, the weather is pretty dismal, and once it starts to get better I’ll head out to the build site and explore the town. The contractor is fencing off the build site, so we’ll see how that is progressing.

What is a seawater greenhouse?

(A General Description)
First and foremost, it is the intellectual property of Seawater Greenhouse Ltd., a London-based company founded by the seawater greenhouse inventor, Charlie Paton. Whatever I say about seawater greenhouses is nothing more than what you could learn should you become curious and peruse the web. With that said, let us go on to the meat of the matter.

The seawater greenhouse is as its name might imply: a greenhouse that uses seawater. It is highly energy efficient, and the only energy demands that are not met passively are from: 1) water pumps, 2) fans, and 3) monitoring equipment. Water is distilled by the sun, the greenhouse is kept cool by evaporative cooling, water is collected by a water-cooled condenser for irrigation, and the plants require less irrigation due to optimal internal humidity and temperatures. Air that leaves the greenhouse is cool and moist relative to the external air, and can be circulated through an outside growing area to improve growing conditions for crops there planted.

The greenhouse is built of aluminum, polyethylene plastic, and a cardboard-like composite. Pipes, the greenhouse cover, and the condenser are made of polyethylene; the frame is aluminum; the evaporators are a cardboard-like composite. That’s it. The fans and monitoring equipment require other metal components, and whatever generates the greenhouse’s power will not be so simple, but overall, the greenhouse construction materials are cheap, recyclable, and easy to work with. All things considered, seawater greenhouses are not just competitive with but they are much cheaper than any other greenhouse in hot coastal desert regions.

A greenhouse’s optimized design can be determined by a modeling program called Waterworks. Waterworks takes into account upwards of ten different conditions (humidity inside and outside, temperature inside and outside, wind speed outside… etc.) and produces an optimal greenhouse design. While the system is quite effective, some changes in design can be made to better suit a greenhouse to its specific location.

Seawater greenhouses work best in hot, arid, coastal regions near deep, cool waters, but these conditions are by no means limits. Personally, I think that the potential exists to break away from the coast entirely, but that is pure personal conjecture that remains to be proven. In any case, I believe it is safe to say that the seawater greenhouse demonstrates a high potential for versatility.

I’ll leave my description of the greenhouse at that: all the sources I got this from can be found online at the company’s website, either under the various posted subsections, or in any of the files from the “downloads” section. Read them yourself if you’ve the time and the interest, and learn more about the system for yourself. If you’ve my tastes, you will find it all quite intriguing!

My first photos will be posted soon; get very excited.