Green is the color of wild: Why wildlife biologists need to know their plants

"Plants are boring!"  "I could care less about plants."  These are words I hear spoken all too frequently by wildlife biologists and wildlife managers.  I can understand where they're coming from.  Wild animals are mysterious, exciting, showy, cute, ferocious, or just plain cool.  Wildlife biologists are field biologists who are often responsible for wildlife management, or the manipulation of wildlife populations and their habitat. Wildlife management is important for a number of different reasons, including predator control, habitat maintenance/protection, protecting endangered species, and resolving people-wildlife conflicts.  A large array of wildlife specialists such as herpetologists (reptiles and amphibians), mammalogists, ornithologists (birds) and others frequently venture into the great outdoors hoping to learn more about the biology and ecology of wild animals in an effort to protect them.

Yet if you were to ask many of these same people what kind of plant is which, or if you ask them to describe a habitat based on common plants (referred to as vegetation communities) their answer if often vague or absent.  There seems to be two main reasons that come to mine for why there is a gap in a basic comprehension of plants and plant communities among wildlife managers:

Figure 1:  Small hand lenses are often used to
examine minute parts
of plants for identification purposes.
Image source:
 http://www.compleatnaturalist.com/mall/vantage_doublets.htm

1.  Plants are boring.  Most of them are monotonously green, are hard to differentiate between other types of plants, and they don't move much.  Botanical identification terminology is often a daunting scientific language to learn and plant science can be complicated and tiresome, as many hours must be spend looking through a hand lens (see Figure 1) or a dissecting scope (figure 2).

Figure 2:  A dissecting scope is used for
enhanced macro-magnification.
Image source:  Wikimedia Commons

2.  Basic ecology concepts are overlooked/under-emphasized.  Plants often define the habitat for wildlife, as they often provide places to nest and seclude themselves from predators and the elements.  More importantly, plants and communities of plants provide the necessarily energy for ecological functionality in most terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (figure 3).

Plants are considered primary producers as they produce energy from sunlight during photosynthesis (the biophysical reaction that turns light energy into glucose sugars).  Because plants are the primary producers of glucose, they contain the highest amount of energy of each trophic level, or ranking, on the food chain.  Energy in this case if often measured in kilocalories (k).  

Here's the part, that wildlife biologists need to tune in their ears to:  As energy passes through each trophic level, it degrades, thus the value of K decreases.  Therefore, by the time energy reaches the secondary and tertiary consumers (such as foxes and grizzly bears, respectively) the amount of energy those animals receive is far less than primary consumers and other organisms.

Figure 3:  Highly simplified model of the energy loss through
successive passes in ecological trophic food levels

If we want to manage good quality wildlife habitat, then it is imperative that we understand the plant communities in which our animal depends upon (figure 4).  Threats to plant populations and their habitat is just as important - if not more important - than that of any given wild animal.  It's time that wildlife biologists have a fundamental understanding plant identification and plant communities.

Figure 4:  Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata L.).  Swamp milkweed hold a close relationship to the Monarch Butterfly, as it is the animal's source of food and where it lays its eggs.   Understanding the difference between swamp milkweed and its habitat requirements versus that of other plants is critical in effectively managing habitat for monarch butterflies.