In the nearly two months it took me to get back here (WordPress 2.0 upgrade woes among others), the pressures for a massive change in land use in Indian River County have dramatically increased. Citrus growers are now beset by a second incurable plant disease that is spreading rapidly: citrus greening. Added to the devastation caused by hurricanes and citrus canker, growers are weighing their options very seriously. Our current “land boom” with its frothy land valuation continues to entice the ag guys. And why not?
As our agricultural lands are developed into one pattern of settlement or another, one of the most fundamental shifts facing our region relates to water. And water will be the focus of my next postings.
For now , a water mystery recently reported in Nature magazine is worthy of note (http://nature.com). Viruses in nearshore marine waters, writes Curtis Suttle, are extremely abundant. Typically, there are about 10,000,000 viruses per milliliter (1/1,000th of a liter) in such sea water. Nearshore marine sediments harbor even higher abundances, with 100 million to a billion viruses per milliliter in surface sediments. What are all of these viruses doing in the sea? According to Suttle, they are not only killing marine microbes and directly influencing global geochemical cycling, but they are also reservoirs for disease in higher organisms. Remember the stories about all those lesions on fishes, turtles, and dolphins living in our coastal waters? Makes you wonder about a day at the beach, huh?