Back Injuries, the Ecology of Robert Paine, and St. Paul

About a week ago I injured my back while cycling to work. I am thankful that it was not a serious injury. In fact, it was triggered by such a seemingly insignificant action that it is amusing to me that I was hurt at all. I was taking a few back streets through town to avoid traffic, and I was approaching one of a few rather busy intersections along this route. So I slowed down figuring that I would have to stop and wait. When I was close enough to look in both directions I saw traffic coming and I continued to brake. Upon further consideration I decided that I could outpace the oncoming cars so I started to pedal again. This amazing display of athletic prowess triggered a pain in my lower back that took my breath away. I made it through the intersection OK (obviously) but I had to stop on the other side to get myself together. The next morning I went to the doctor and she was fairly generous with the medication. After a shot and a prescription I was on the way to feeling a bit better. The difficult part is getting out of bed in the morning. Once I'm up and stretched out I feel OK. It’s just getting out of bed that is not so fun.

I do not say all of this to complain. I have a lot to be thankful for. In fact, this episode has had an unforeseen benefit. I typically feel the call of nature about 6 am. I usually get up, go back to bed, and sleep a while longer. However, the current dramatic, and probably comical, routine required for me to get out of bed is such that I do not want to do it twice in one day. So I am now getting up and going to work a good bit earlier than usual. The end result has been one of the most productive weeks I've had in a long time. It typically takes me quite a while to put together a manuscript, but I think I set a new personal record for producing a first draft. The old saying in academia is true. We must “publish or perish” and now is the time for me to publish a lot.

This unpredictable benefit due to a seemingly negative event reminds me of the classic ecological study published by Robert Paine of the University of Washington in 1966. Paine worked in the rocky intertidal environments along the west coast of North America.

I was fortunate enough to spend two summers during grad school working in the rocky intertidal environments near Friday Harbor, Washington.  All those white specks are barnacles in the upper portion of the tidal zone.

The most oft cited portion of this particular paper is the experiment he set up with intertidal invertebrates along the Washington coast. He began by observing who was eating whom in this environment. This allowed him to construct a food web to illustrate predator-prey relationships. At the bottom of the web were chitons, limpets, mussels, and barnacles. These critters at the bottom of the web competed for space on the rocks and typically ate algae growing on the rocks or food floating in the water. At the second level of the web was a predatory snail which ate the mussels and barnacles. At the top of the pyramid was a starfish, Pisaster ochraceus, which ate all the other animals.

My friend Jim holding an odd six-armed Pisaster.  They typically have five arms.  Notice how its tube feet allow it to hold relatively large rocks.  This strength helps it pry invertebrates off rocks in the ocean.

In June of 1963 Dr. Paine set up an experiment to see what would happen without this predatory starfish. He kept the starfish out of an area 8 meters long and 2 meters high along the rocks. He also observed an area adjacent to the experiment where he did nothing to alter the environment as a control. Very quickly things began to change since the starfish was no longer there to eat the critters living on the rocks. By September of that year the barnacles started to take over the experimental plot and covered 60-80% of the space. By June of 1964 the mussels began to push out the barnacles and dominated the experimental area. Since the mussels were the dominant occupiers of space they pushed out the algae on the rocks. This caused the chitons to leave because they ate the displaced algae. In the end, the diversity of the experimental plot decreased from 15 species to eight. Dr. Paine concluded that a moderate amount of predation actually served to increase biodiversity in local environments by limiting the success of the top competitors for space. What can be seen as a negative phenomenon, predation, can actually produce a healthier more stable ecosystem.

This in turn put me in mind of something St. Paul wrote to the budding church in Rome:

…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. – Letter of Paul to the Romans, Chapter 5

So we can see the parallels which suggest that negative events, whether in nature or in the course of human lives, can produce unpredictable positive results. Let me clear, I do not think that I am suffering. I have not been persecuted by the Romans and no starfish has ever attempted to eat me…though one did pin my friend Rich’s arm to the bottom of a sea table for about a half an hour one time in Friday Harbor.

So what will I do when suffering does come? The realization that an important goal is unattainable? The sorrow in the trials of infertility? The death of a close family member? Am I really supposed to rejoice? My hope is that when suffering does come I will remember the lessons learned from my injured back, Robert Paine, and St. Paul. I should not just endure, but rejoice in suffering, gain endurance, grow in character, and revel in the gift of God’s love.