Reconnecting with Nature in Stressful Times
Stressful times can make it difficult to stay connected with nature. Learn how to take a moment to re-ground yourself and reconnect with the ecosystem, even in your mind.
Dr. Jacquelyn Gill
Paleoecologist @UMaine trying to be a good ancestor. Climate change, biodiversity, extinction. @MakeAPlanetPod @OurWarmRegards She/her 🏳️🌈
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I'm working on a grant proposal, and it's so easy to get caught up in the stress of formatting and bureaucracy. When I hit peak frustration, I try to take a moment and re-ground myself by remembering what we're studying, and to reconnect with the ecosystem, if only in my mind.
— Dr. Jacquelyn Gill (@JacquelynGill) March 23, 2023 -
Right now, oblivious to my struggles, tiny plants are waiting it out under the snowpack of the mountains of the northeast. They've hung on through the howling winds and brutal cold, where they will flourish in a short alpine summer, despite trampling boots and growing heat.
— Dr. Jacquelyn Gill (@JacquelynGill) March 23, 2023 -
If you stitched together the total area of the alpine zones of New England and the Adirondacks, you'd get maybe 21 square miles (34 km) total.
— Dr. Jacquelyn Gill (@JacquelynGill) March 23, 2023
That's 1/10 of the area devoted to parking in Los Angeles. -
These alpine plants were once part of the vast tundra displaced by ice sheets last glaciation. As the ice sheets receded, the plants tracked northwards, but also upwards, nestling into the rocky crevices and wind-swept ridges of Katahdin, Mt. Mansfield, and Mt. Washington.
— Dr. Jacquelyn Gill (@JacquelynGill) March 23, 2023 -
Tiny plants, hanging on for thirteen thousand years on rocky islands surrounded by a vast, forested ocean, thousands of miles from the Arctic "mainland." What's their secret? What can they teach us about how small, fragmented populations can be resilient to climate change?
— Dr. Jacquelyn Gill (@JacquelynGill) March 23, 2023 -
If they can hang on through all of that, then I can make it through the stress of this proposal submission.
— Dr. Jacquelyn Gill (@JacquelynGill) March 23, 2023
And with a lot of love, luck, and science, maybe my broken body can heal enough to carry me up to see them again one day.