The cover of “Beyond the Sea: The Hidden Life in Lakes, Streams, and Wetlands.” By: Johns Hopkins Press
By Isabella Figueroa
Around 97% of all the water on the planet is in the vast oceans that cover more than two-thirds of its surface. “But Seas are not the only body of water that make Earth special,” ecologist David Strayer writes in his new book.
“Beyond the Sea: The Hidden Life in Lakes, Streams, and Wetlands,” presents the lesser-known facts of freshwater ecosystems and how they affect our everyday lives.
Before retiring in 2016, Strayer spent nearly 50 years studying freshwater ecology, most recently at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, where he developed an expertise in the nearby Hudson River.
The book lays out the good, the bad and the ugly of the world’s inland water bodies, which Strayer reports are home to some 2,600 plant species and 150,000 animal species, about half of which are insects.
While celebrating that abundance of life the book doesn’t shy away from the serious threats and challenges that inland waters face, including pollution, invasive species, climate change and the damaging impacts of dams and water diversions.
David Strayer uses fine screens to search for juvenile freshwater mussels in Webatuck Creek in eastern New York. By: Heather Malcom.
Dams have caused more extinctions in inland waters than any other factor and are perhaps “the biggest threat” to those ecosystems, Strayer said.
For example, Strayer writes about Muscle Shoals in the Tennessee River, once a long, shallow rapids with a rocky bottom. Now submerged behind a dam, this stretch of river moves slowly over a muddy bottom. Many of the species that once lived in Muscle Shoals, such as the Atlantic sturgeon and mussels called riffleshells and leafshells, have been extirpated.
Strayer also highlights the negative impacts of dams in other parts of the world, including the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the inland sea has been drying up since the 1960s due to a Soviet diversion dam that redirected water from its tributaries to use for irrigation. As a result, the Aral Sea has shrunk to less than 10% of its original size.
“It’s as if we dried up Lake Erie, and then there was just a little puddle down at the bottom, and that was irrigation water,” Strayer said.
Invasive species are another significant threat to freshwater environments, Strayer writes. He argues that something as easy as cleaning a boat before launching it on a lake can prevent the spread of invasives, which can outcompete native plants and animals and cause habitat loss.
While the threats to inland waters are prominent, there is plenty of reason for hope, Strayer said. His research shows that these ecosystems are resilient, and with the right conservation efforts, they can recover.
“We need to have more pressure from regular people to push for that conservation,” Strayer said. “I’m kind of hoping at least a few of the people who read this book might join a conservation NGO, or might write a letter to their elected representatives and push a little bit harder for the conservation of inland waters.”
Strayer said that writing the book reinforced his appreciation for these water bodies.
“Most of the freshwater people I know have very dark days where we’re very pessimistic about the future of inland waters,” he said. “Writing the book made me realize that it’s within our power to control out of those impacts, if we choose to do so.”
“Beyond the Sea: The Hidden Life in Lakes, Streams, and Wetlands” is published by Johns Hopkins University Press and is available for $27.95.