The early bird catches the worm — and, one UC Irvine scientist says, might also help reduce the effects of global warming.

Eastern bluebird with leaf-eating caterpillar. Photo by Mike Onyon.

In a new study published in a scientific journal this week, ecologist and lead author Kailen Mooney shows that birds, bats and lizards consume enough insects to reduce the damage they cause to plants and promote plant growth — by 14 percent on average.

“The goal was to understand how natural communities work, and the role of top predators in shaping and affecting communities of insects,” Mooney said.

The study itself, a “meta-analysis” of 63 previous studies involving 113 experiments, looked only at how plant growth is affected by removing birds and other animals that prey on insects. But the implications for climate change are clear, Mooney said.

“Anytime a plant is growing, it’s taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turning it into tissues,” he said.

Humanity’s release of carbon dioxide, along with other greenhouse gases, is believed by climate scientists to be driving the sharp warming trend seen in global temperatures.

The more carbon stored by plants, the less in the atmosphere. That could help slow down the rise in temperatures.

Although the estimate is not part of the study, Mooney said the rate of increased carbon capture could parallel the amount of increased plant growth promoted by birds and other insect predators.

“From the fact that there are predators protecting plants, and increasing the growth rate by approximately 14 percent, it’s a rough approximation to say it is increasing carbon capture in natural ecosystems on something on the order of 14 percent also,” he said.

Mooney and his co-authors spent four years combing through every study they could find that involved keeping birds, bats or lizards away from plants to see if there was an effect on plant growth-rates.

That includes experiments Mooney himself did as a graduate student in the pine forests of Colorado.

Mooney built cages around pine trees to keep birds out, then tracked insect populations and tree growth for three years.

“We found that, in a nutshell, birds increased the growth rate of pine trees by about a third,” he said.

But while a number of such experiments had been done, no one had yet pulled them all together for an overall analysis.

One of his most important findings, he said, was that the effects of insect predators on plant growth showed wide variation depending on type of habitat — trees or shrubs, for example — as well as latitude, with strong differences between tropical and temperate zones.

He also found that the growth-promoting effect held up even though the birds, bats and lizards were feeding not only on insects but other insect predators, such as spiders.

“It wasn’t clear how strong that would be,” he said. “Maybe it would turn out to be a wash.”

But he found plant growth was enhanced by about the same amount, even when consumption of other insect predators was taken into account.

The study also has implications for wildlife conservation, he said. Bird populations are declining in many places because of loss of habitat. And great care must be taken when growing new forests to capture carbon dioxide, he said, so that “at the same time we’re trying on one end to increase carbon capture by planting new forests, we’re not losing populations of these predators, and maybe sliding backwards in that regard,” he said.

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Johnny jump up. Stork bill filaree. Yellow pincushion. Pineapple weed.

Reel off the common names of wildflowers in Orange County’s and you can start to sound a little crazy. But the names might, in fact, help preserve a bit of sanity: how else to confront the explosion of colors suddenly spattered across the hills?

Rain-fed blooms are reaching toward their peak, and the rangers at OC Parks are eager to show them off.

During a short visit this week to Limestone Canyon & Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, supervising ranger Ron Slimm spoke of the attachment people develop for plants — even non-natives such as eucalyptus trees. Try cutting them down in and, in some places, you could spark a neighborhood protest.

“It’s an emotional factor that binds people to all these things,” he said.

So a low-growing, knobby-looking plant might be overlooked — until someone remembers its zany name (“Hey! That’s pineapple weed!”).

Squash one of the knobs between your fingers and, sure enough, it smells exactly like pineapple.

In a canyon that was little more than a smoking scar after the 2007 Santiago Fire, the hills are now thick with green growth and bursting flowers.

The flowers aren’t as concentrated as they were immediately after the fire, said David Raetz, deputy director of the Irvine Ranch Conservancy.

“The displays this year are a little more spread out,” he said. Still, he said, “It’s a stunning landscape. Most people wouldn’t believe it existed in Orange County.”

Such displays are, in fact, rare, Raetz said. The county is part of one of the planet’s few regions known for seasonal wildflower explosions.

And a decent rainy season after several dry ones is giving Orange County its biggest pop in years.

OC Parks is offering several wildflower tours to the public:

Saturday, April 10:

Wildflower Hike

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Willow Staging Area, 20101 Laguna Canyon Rd.

8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Call 949-923-2235 to make reservations. Parking $3, plus $2 donation.

Saturday, April 17:

Junior Ranger Day at Santiago Oaks

Santiago Oaks Regional Park

10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Free event, ages 5-12. Parking $5. Call 714-973-6622.

Saturday, May 8:

Wildflower Hike

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Willow Staging Area

8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Reservations required (see phone number above; parking and donation fees same as above.)

Saturday, June 12:

Wildflower Hike

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Willow Staging Area

8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Reservations required. Fees same as above.

Don’t forget to enter the Orange County Register’s wildflower photo contest. The winner gets $250:

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The agency that manages much of California’s water supply increased the amount allocated to downstream agencies Thursday, saying recent storms have improved the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Lake Oroville. Photo courtesy Department of Water Resources

But the new allocation — 20 percent, meaning 20 percent of what water agencies requested — remains a fairly low figure. Some reservoirs, such as Lake Oroville, also remain low, so the state Department of Water Resources will continue asking California residents to conserve.

“Statewide, the snowpack is hovering right around normal, which is a welcome thing after three dry years,” said the agency’s director, Mark Cowin. “We do expect to get more precipitation before the spring is over, but after April 1 is typically considered the end of snow season.”

The latest readings placed the Sierra snowpack at 106 percent of normal, up from 81 percent of normal at this time last year.

The agency started the year with its lowest water allocation ever: just five percent. Typically, the figure is raised as the winter rain and snow increase water supplies.

In February, the agency increased the allocation to 15 percent.

Cowin said he hopes to push it farther up, to 30 or 40 percent. At the end of April last year, the allocation was 30 percent, and the year ended at 40 percent.

Over the past 10 years, the allocations have averaged 68 percent.

Pumping restrictions on the California Bay Delta to protect troubled fish species, along with slow recovery from drought years in some reservoirs, continue to limit the allocation, officials said.

Lake Oroville, for example, the State Water Project’s main reservoir, is only at 47 percent of capacity.

“Remember, we started this winter with very poor carry-over storage in most of our key reservoirs,” Cowin said.

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Seed farm site before planting. Photo courtesy Wida Karim, Irvine Ranch Conservancy.

A native seed farm planted by the Irvine Ranch Conservancy is flourishing, with rain-fueled blooms of lupines, poppies and other flowers and shrubs.

But the rain was fuel for weeds as well, and the conservancy says it needs the public’s help to rip them out.

The idea behind the farm is to produce native species, many of them difficult to cultivate, to act as seed stock for the conservancy’s ambitious habitat restoration efforts. Growing their own natives should save money and avoid depletion of wild plants from too much collecting.

The conservancy has planted about 22,000 shrubs over six

Seed farm site after planting, showing lupines. Photo courtesy Wida Karim, Irvine Ranch Conservancy.

acres in a former avocado orchard near Irvine; the orchard burned in the 2007 Santiago fire.

Not only are arroyo lupines and California poppies showing their colors, but chia, cliff aster and dwarf plaintain are blooming as well, soon to produce the seeds that the conservancy will harvest.

Tough-to-grow natives including purple owl’s clover, cobweb thistle, hedge nettle and narrow-leafed milkweed are also in the mix on a trial basis.

Volunteers are needed to attack weeds on the seed farm on the second Saturday of every month. So far, turnout has been low, said spokeswoman Wida Karim. Volunteers can register on the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks Web site.

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California State Parks, strapped for cash after deep budget cuts, are teaming with large corporations to clean up state beaches — including Bolsa Chica and Huntington state beaches in Orange County.

Register photo of trash piled up at Huntington State Beach after January storm by Ken Steinhardt.

Coca Cola and Stater Bros. Markets are taking part in the new campaign, called “Care for Our Coast.” Coca Cola Bottling Co. will donate $1 to State Parks for every $10 purchase of the company’s products through April 25. During the same period, Stater Bros. will ask customers to make a $1 or $5 tax-deductible donation.

Donations also can be made online at the campaign’s Web site.

The campaign begins today.

The money collected — they’re aming to match last year’s total of about $600,000 — will be used for cleanups not only at Bolsa Chica and Huntington, but San Onofre State Beach, South Carlsbad State Beach and Malibu Lagoon State Beach.

State Parks also will hold a cleanup at Huntington Beach on April 17, from 9-11 a.m., with Coke and Stater Bros. employees. The cleanup is also open to volunteers from the public.

And cleanups, including beach grooming, aren’t the only focus of the campaign. Solar-powered trash compactors will be installed to reduce the frequency of trash pickup, a money-saving measure, and coastal dune habitat also will be restored, said California State Parks director Ruth Coleman.

“This gives us the ability to do things we wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to do,” Coleman said.

The two companies took part in a similar campaign last year to plant trees in fire-ravaged state parks.

State Parks saw $14 million in budget cuts last year. Parks officials had initially proposed closing a number of parks, placing them in mothballs until funds were found to reopen them, but they instead met budgeting targets in part by slashing park hours and services.

Teaming with private companies for funding is helping State Parks with habitat restoration and other needed programs, Coleman said.

“These are challenging times,” she said. “And public-private partnerships help us make it happen.”

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Green abalone captured off Laguna Beach. Photo courtesy Nancy Caruso.

An Orange County scientist who spent years growing kelp forests offshore is firing up volunteers for her newest project: breeding green abalone in local schools, then releasing them into the wild.

Nancy Caruso, a marine biologist and head of the “Get Inspired!” non-profit organization, caught three good-sized abalone off Laguna Beach Saturday with help from her dive team. She kept the abalone in tanks overnight to get fecal samples, and returned them to their offshore hideout the next day.

It’s the first step in an ambitious effort that would be the only one of  its kind in the state.

“We’re finding some abalone, and that’s good news,” Caruso said. “Nobody really knew if they were still around.”

If her project succeeds, she’ll boost the population of a species that was nearly wiped out in Southern California, as well as recruiting youngsters to her cause: restoring troubled marine species and habitats.

But Caruso must first win approval from the state Department of Fish and Game to intervene with delicate green abalone populations. Like other abalone species, green abalone fell victim to a one-two punch over decades: a strong demand for delicious-tasting abalone that led to overfishing, and the arrival of a mysterious form of bacteria that infected them with deadly “withering disease.”

The disease causes the animal’s massive “foot” — really most of its body mass — to waste away, likely devoured from within by the creature itself as it tries to counter the bacteria’s interference with feeding and metabolism.

Nancy Caruso, front, and her dive team. Photo courtesy Nancy Caruso.

“Withering syndrome is clearly responsible for a huge outbreak in disease mortality seen in abalone since the mid 1980s,” said Jim Moore, a senior fish pathologist with the state Department of Fish and Game in Bodega Bay who is testing the abalone fecal samples sent to him by Caruso.

Other Fish and Game officials will rely on the tests to help decide whether to give Caruso the proper permits to move ahead with her project.

Moore is finding that the green abalone from Orange County are, in fact, still infected with the withering bacteria. But he said the green abalone seem to be tolerating the presence of the bacteria with few ill effects at higher temperatures than other abalone species — a finding that could help Caruso make her case to Fish and Game.

“So far, we’re finding that they’re living with this bacteria, they’re surviving with it,” Caruso said.

That could make the greens the best candidate for restoration in warmer Southern California waters.

“If they’re able to handle the disease better, they have a better chance at recovery,” said Ian Taniguchi, a senior fish and game biologist who is tracking Caruso’s efforts.

The weekend outing to capture abalone was Caruso’s second, and she’s planning one more. She said she is finding green abalone in the places she’d hoped to see them, another encouraging sign that they  might be poised for a comeback.

The abalone also were good sized — seven to nine inches across — near the maximum size she expects for the species.

Because the creatures are still sought-after delicacies, Caruso says she prefers to keep their exact location and numbers a secret.

If she gets her permits, her plan is to obtain young abalone from an abalone farm in Goleta, distribute them in tanks in area schools, and allow students to grow them to maturity.

Then, she and her dive team will release them into kelp beds offshore.

The abalone feed on the blades shed by kelp, a kind of janitorial service that causes no harm to the kelp itself.

Green abalone, along with pink abalone, are a species of concern, but are not federally listed as endangered. White and black abalone are listed.

Greens are showing signs of recovery from low numbers, Taniguchi said, but remain uncommon off Orange County. Some pinks are believed to remain off Orange County as well.

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Youngsters on their first camping trips still fall victim to a famous practical joke: being taken on a “snipe hunt.”

According to legend, the snipe doesn’t really exist, much to the chagrin of the inexperienced camper.

But in some places, the joke might be on the joker. Snipes do exist, and the Wilson’s snipe can be seen in Orange County this time of year, though it will soon head north for the summer.

Seeing a snipe can be a difficult proposition, perhaps contributing to its legendary non-existence.

Inhabitants of marshes, wet meadows and river banks, they are strikingly patterned birds, but the patterns serve to break up their shapes. The result: the birds can hide in plain sight, blending in so well with, say, a rocky or pebbly habitat that they’re virtually invisible until flushed by an approaching intruder.

Then, they might fly off in a zigzag with a harsh cry.

In their breeding territories, including parts of northern California, they are famous for making another sound: a kind of “winnowing” produced by their tail feathers as they make a steep dive from on high.

While that display won’t be seen in Orange County, the birds themselves can be if you visit known snipe hot spots. They’re often encountered along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim.

By the end of April they’ll be gone – truly non-existent, at least locally, until fall.

Scientific name: Gallinago delicata

Sources: Sylvia Gallagher, Sea and Sage Audubon Society; “Lives of North American Birds,” by Kenn Kaufman.

Next week: Allen’s daisy

Illustration by: Brian Moore

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An Orange County Water District biologist who spent 30 years working to bring back the endangered light-footed clapper rail has won a national conservation award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Dick Zembal, right, with volunteer Molly Sallcup and captive-bred light-footed clapper rail about to be released. Courtesy Dick Zembal.

Dick Zembal, natural resources director at the water district who previously was a field supervisor at Fish and Wildlife, received the agency’s 2009 Recovery Champion Award — one of three to receive it in the state and one of 18 nationwide.

“In this day and age, what I use the clapper rail for is trying to get college kids involved with endangered species,” he said. “We get federal funds when we can to help kids pay for their schooling.”

Zembal has spent three decades monitoring the coastal wetlands, such as the wildlife refuge at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and Upper Newport Bay, that provide habitat for the secretive bird, which weaves its floating nests out of cord grass.

He also supervised captive breeding of the birds, built nesting platforms that helped them breed in the wild, and brought together a variety of agencies and institutions to assist in his effort, among them the U.S. Navy, the state Department of Fish and Game, the Unified Port of San Diego, the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld.

His efforts, a Fish and Wildlife announcement said, have helped push clapper rail numbers from 163 pairs in California in 1989 to 443 pairs in 2007, a record number.

Light-footed clapper rail. Courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The largest population of the bird is in Upper Newport Bay, where 140 pairs were counted last year.

Zembal said he believes he and others involved in the recovery effort have helped the birds.

“I do think we’ve made a difference, but to attribute the increased numbers just to our efforts? I don’t know,” he said. “I think they’d be much worse off if it wasn’t for us.”

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It’s lights out across the planet Saturday night for “Earth Hour,” a symbolic call for action on global warming, and many Orange County businesses will flip the switch as well.

Golden Gate Bridge, lights on. Courtesy World Wildlife Fund

Golden Gate Bridge, lights off. Courtesy World Wildlife Fund

At least 12 appeared on a partial list compiled by World Wildlife Fund, the yearly event’s organizers, among them Ecotek in Huntington Beach and Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

The idea is to switch lights off for one hour starting at 8:30 p.m. in each time zone on Saturday.

“We’re going to make it as dark as we can without causing any issues or concerns,” said Dan Pittman, spokesman for the Westin, which turned its lights out last year as well.

Most hotel guests seemed willing to participate, he said, though whether they turn lights out in their rooms will be up to them.

“People seem to buy into it,” he said. “People, given the chance, like to participate in these things. Candle light is kind of romantic anyhow.”

Begun in 2007 in Australia, Earth Hour has grown steadily every year since, said Leslie Aun, manager of Earth Hour for the World Wildlife Fund. People — as well as city governments and businesses — were continuing to sign up the day before the event.

“As of this moment, we have 125 countries,” Aun said late Friday. “But it’s a moving target, and continues to change by the hour. Last year, there were only 88.”

More than 3,500 cities also had signed up by Friday, as well as the governments in 33 of the 50 U.S. states.

“We had 4,000 cities last year,” she said. “The way it’s trending, we’re going to easily beat that.”

The state governments typically take part by switching lights off in a government building, such as the executive mansion. In California, the lights on the State Capitol golden dome will be switched off.

Knowing how many people will take part is a bit trickier. About 50,000 had signed up on the organization’s Web site Friday, but far more typically take part. The group estimates last year’s participation at some 80 million, a number estimated from surveys taken after the event.

In Southern California, the Santa Monica Pier will go dark, along with the pylons at the Los Angeles International Airport (runway lights and control tower lights will stay on; the group urges everyone to stay safe, and turn off only lights that aren’t needed).

The Golden Gate Bridge will wink out in San Francisco. Across the United States, some of the more impressive darkenings will include the Las Vegas strip and the Empire State Building in New York.

Beijing’s Forbidden City will go dark, along with the Taj Mahal, the Egyptian pyramids, the Eiffel Tower and Buckingham Palace. In Dubai, the world’s largest building will switch its lights off as well.

“We don’t have the White House — yet,” Aun said.

In many places, McDonald’s restaurants will turn their lights out.

The idea of turning lights off really has nothing to do with saving power, Aun said — an hour’s worth of energy savings would be negligible.

But it is meant as a kind of global cry for action to reverse the effects of climate change.

“It’s a symbolic event,” she said. “This is the largest mass event in history. It’s very hard for people to have their voices heard; it’s a signal to the world that they care about this issue. It’s very visual, very inspiring.”

Here’s a partial list of Orange County  businesses taking part in Earth Hour:

Embassy Suites, Anaheim North

Hilton, Anaheim

Hilton Orange County, Costa Mesa

R3 Construction Services, Anaheim

Westin South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa

CB Richard Ellis, Fountain Valley

Power Reduction Technologies, Fullerton

Ecotek, Huntington Beach

Embassy Suites, Irvine

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Irvine

Fairmont Hotel, Newport Beach

St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, San Juan Capistrano

IKEA

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