SMALL BUT IMPORTANT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 1 September 1942, Page 1

SMALL BUT IMPORTANT

TO THE WELFARE OF MAN The importance of microscopical animals and plants to the welfare of man is stressed in an article in •‘Forest and Bird.” A striking illustration of what is meant is to be found in the biotic chain which ends in the production of Peruvian guano. Vast numbers of cormorants (shags) and other birds feed upon the almost unbelievable quantities of fish present along the coast of Peru and nest on islands off the coast thus producing the guano. But the fish require food, so the larger varieties | feed upon the lesser and the lesser on ■ the lesser still and so until we find j masses of minute fish feeding upon | the microscopical diatoms which in ! their turn feed upon decayed matter! brought near the surface by the 100-! mile wide cold Humbolt current. It | will be obvious that if the decayed | matter failed for some reason the diatoms would starve and then the i whole vast biotic structure would I fall and the thousands upon thou- | sands of shags now present would starve leaving perhaps a remnant j I which would be looked upon as rare • birds, l