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By NASA
NASA-supported scientists have suggested an updated framework for the role of ferns in environmental recovery from disaster. Instead of competing with other organisms, ferns may act as facilitators that ease the way for other plants and animals to re-establish themselves in a damaged landscape.
The study examines how a biosphere recovers from major upheaval, be it from wildfires or asteroid impacts, using what scientists call a ‘facilitative’ framework (where the actions of organisms help each other) rather than the long-held ‘competition-based’ framework.
NASA supported researchers at a fossil plant quarry near the Old Raton Pass Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary in New Mexico.Ellen Currano Ferns are a common type of vascular plant found in woodlands, gardens, and many a plant pot on apartment shelves. Unlike many other vascular plants, ferns do not flower or seed. Instead, they reproduce via spores. Ferns first appeared on Earth some 360 million years ago during the Devonian period and, prior to the evolution of flowering plants, were the most common vascular plant on Earth.
Ferns are often one of the first plants to re-establish in areas affected by large-scale upheaval events, and it has been suggested that this is because ferns produce spores in great amounts that are widely distributed on the wind. Some scientists, particularly in the fields of geology and paleontology, have used this ‘competitive’ success of ferns as a foundation for ecological theories about how recolonization happens after upheavals.
However, in recent years, growing research has shown that recovery is not only about competition. Positive interactions, known as facilitation, between ferns and other species also play a significant role. The authors of the recent study believe that it is time to re-examine positive interactions within ecosystems, rather than defaulting to a competition framework.
Ferns in History
“I love to imagine ecosystems through time and play a game in my head where I ask myself, ’if I could stand here for 1 million years, would this fossilize?’” said lead author Lauren Azevedo Schmidt of the University of California at Davis. “Because of the mental time gymnastics I do, my research questions follow the same pathway. How do I create synergy between modern and paleo research?”
Early Paleocene fern fossil discovered on the Vermejo Park Ranch, NM. Photo by Ellen Currano.Ellen Currano The team examined ideas that have been developed based on observing modern organisms as well as ancient populations in the fossil record. They propose that, rather than out-competing other species, ferns act as facilitators for ecosystem recovery by stabilizing the ground, enhancing properties of the soil, and mediating competition between other organisms. This repositions ferns as facilitators of ecological recovery within disturbed habitats. This has broad implications for understanding how a community recovers and the importance of positive interactions following disturbance events. Because ferns are among the oldest lineages of plants on Earth and have experienced unimaginable climates and extinction events, they provide critical information to better understand the fossil record and Earth before humans.
Fossil plant excavation in the Cretaceous rocks just below the K-Pg boundary at Old Raton Pass, NM. Photo by Ellen Currano.Ellen Currano “The Cretaceous – Paleogene [K-Pg] extinction event reworked Earth’s biosphere, resulting in approximately 75% of species going extinct, with up to 90% of plants going extinct,” said Azevedo Schmidt. “This magnitude of devastation is something humans (luckily) have never had to deal with, making it hard to even think about. But it is something we must consider when tackling research/issues surrounding exobiology.”
The longevity of ferns on Earth provides a view into the evolution of life on Earth, even through some of the planet’s most devastating disasters. This is of interest to astrobiology and exobiology because exploring how environmental factors can and have impacted the large-scale evolution of life on Earth through mass extinctions and mass radiation events can help us understand the potential for the origin, evolution and distribution for life elsewhere in the Universe.
Ferns in Space
In addition to their relevance to astrobiology, the resilience of ferns and their ability to help heal a damaged environment could also make them important partners for future human missions in space. NASA’s Space Biology program has supported experiments to study how plants adapt to space with the expectation that knowledge gained can lead to ways by which crops can be cultivated for fresh food. Lessons learned from studying resilient plants, such as ferns, could guide efforts to make crops adapt better to harsh space conditions so they can serve as a reliable food source as humans explore destinations beyond our planet. Previous studies have also looked at how plants might keep air clean in enclosed spaces like the International Space Station or in habitats on the Moon or Mars.
NASA supported scientists can be seen prospecting for plant fossils in Berwind Canyon, CO. Photo by Ellen Currano.Ellen Currano “Ferns were able to completely transform Earth’s biosphere following the devastation of the K-Pg [Cretaceous–Paleogene] extinction event. The environment experienced continental-scale fires, acid rain, and nuclear winter, but ferns were able to tolerate unbelievable stress and make their environment better,” says Azevedo Schmidt. “I think we can all learn something from the mighty ferns.”
The study, “Ferns as facilitators of community recovery following biotic upheaval,” was published in the journal BioScience [doi:10.1093/biosci/biae022]
For more information on NASA’s Astrobiology program, visit:
https://www.science.nasa.gov/astrobiology
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Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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NASA AI, Open Science Advance Natural Disaster Research and Recovery
Hurricane Ida is pictured as a category 2 storm from the International Space Station as it orbited 264 miles above the Gulf of Mexico. In the foreground is the Canadarm2 robotic arm with Dextre, the fine-tuned robotic hand, attached. NASA By Lauren Perkins
When you think of NASA, disasters such as hurricanes may not be the first thing to come to mind, but several NASA programs are building tools and advancing science to help communities make more informed decisions for disaster planning.
Empowered by NASA’s commitment to open science, the NASA Disasters Program supports disaster risk reduction, response, and recovery. A core element of the Disasters Program is providing trusted, timely, and actionable data to aid organizations actively responding to disasters.
Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana Aug. 21, 2021, as a category 4 hurricane, one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes in the continental United States on record. The effects of the storm were widespread, causing devastating damage and affecting the lives of millions of people.
During Hurricane Ida, while first responders and other organizations addressed the storm’s impacts from the ground, the NASA Disasters program was able to provide a multitude of remotely sensed products. Some of the products and models included information on changes in soil moisture, changes in vegetation, precipitation accumulations, flood detection, and nighttime lights to help identify areas of power outages.
Image Before/After The NASA team shared the data with its partners on the NASA Disasters Mapping Portal and began participating in cross-agency coordination calls to determine how to further aid response efforts. To further connect and collaborate using open science efforts, NASA Disasters overlaid publicly uploaded photos on their Damage Proxy Maps to provide situational awareness of on-the-ground conditions before, during, and after the storm.
Immediate post-storm response is critical to saving lives; just as making informed, long- term response decisions are critical to providing equitable recovery solutions for all. One example of how this data can be used is blue tarp detection in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) with NASA satellite images, the Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT), based at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, conducted a study to detect the number of blue tarps on rooftops in the aftermath of hurricanes, such as Ida, as a way of characterizing the severity of damage in local communities.
An aerial photograph shows damaged roofs from Hurricane Maria in 2017 in Barrio Obrero, Puerto Rico. In the wake of the hurricane, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and United States Army Corps of Engineers distributed 126,000 blue tarps and nearly 60,000 temporary blue roofs to people awaiting repairs on damaged homes. NASA While disasters cannot be avoided altogether, timely and accessible information helps communities worldwide reduce risk, improve response, hasten recovery, and build disaster resilience.
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“NASA is dedicated to ensuring that our scientific data are accessible and beneficial to all. Our AI foundation models are scientifically validated and adaptable to new data, designed to maximize efficiency and lower technical barriers. This ensures that even in the face of challenging disasters, response teams can be swift and effective,” said Kevin Murphy, NASA’s chief science data officer. “Through these efforts, we’re not only advancing scientific frontiers, but also delivering tangible societal benefits, providing data that can safeguard lives and improve resilience against future threats.”
Hear directly from some of the data scientists building these AI models, the NASA disaster response team, as well as hurricane hunters that fly directly into these devastating storms on NASA’s Curious Universe podcast.
Learn more about NASA’s AI for Science models at https://science.nasa.gov/artificial-intelligence-science/.
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