The wind can be especially annoying in March, and especially this year, it has been very cruel to many of us, including the trees and plants in our yards.
We may not need or want the strong winds wreaking havoc this month, but the wind serves an important purpose for both animals and plants, as well as humans.
Uneven heating of the Earth by the sun causes wind. The uneven heating is especially prominent as winter turns to spring, which is why March comes in like a lion with roaring winds.
Wind “is the great equalizer of the atmosphere, transporting heat, moisture, pollutants, and dust great distances around the globe,” according to the National Geographic Society.
Remarkably, natural wildfires in Africa create nutrients that the wind carries all the way to the Amazon rainforest. Without those nutrients, there would be no rainforest, which produces a quarter of the world’s oxygen and sequesters carbon dioxide.
Wind disperses seeds from some plants to perpetuate the species. Common plants have special mechanisms to help the seeds take a ride on the wind.
Silver maple seeds are encased in what’s called a samara, designed to float like a helicopter in the wind. Each spring, thousands of samaras from our silver maple tree fall upon the landscape when the wind starts gusting. Later in the season, many seedlings emerge after rain and the soil helps them sprout. The seedlings can be annoying, but they remind us that wind helps plants.
Wind transports dandelion seeds, which develop a white, parachute-like mechanism, called a pappus. A blowing wind can propel the seeds for 100 yards or more, about the size of a football field.
Some tree species, including pines and oaks, rely on the wind to disperse pollen. In spring, male and female flowers are produced on a single oak tree. The wind carries pollen from a male flower to a female flower, and if all goes well, months later, an acorn develops.
Wind also plays a role in animal behavior. Birds sing more often in the early morning when the wind is calmer. That way, their songs can be carried farther to potential mates, without the noisy interruption of a howling wind.
With mammals, wind can determine who hears or smells whom first. A fox often travels with the wind blowing directly toward it, so its scent isn’t detected by prey. At the same time, prey traveling with the wind can easily be detected by the fox. Deer may move upwind so they can smell potential predators ahead, or they may travel with the wind to smell the scent of a mate.
In the sky, birds like hawks rely on the wind to aid their migration. Raptors in spring migrate north to breeding grounds and choose southerly winds to get there more quickly. Different species react to a wind’s speed. For example, a broad-winged hawk, which migrates in large groups, uses tailwinds to travel, but if winds are more than 15 or 20 mph, it often stays put.
The wind, for thousands of years, has provided energy to humans. Wind turbines are touted as clean energy; however, they have created problems for some animals, including bats, which are important eaters of insect pests, including mosquitoes.
Millions of bats are killed annually when striking wind turbines during their migration. Scientists have discovered that changing the speed and times when the turbines spin can prevent many bat deaths.
While humans have learned to harness the wind to create clean energy, there’s no way to stop hurricane-force winds or tornadoes that cause destruction. Unfortunately, climate change is affecting global wind patterns, which result in stronger, more intense, damaging storms.
The wind, in so many ways, is telling us a story about our world and our climate. We need to listen.
Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the Chicago Tribune and its subsidiaries. She’s the author of several books on nature and the environment and co-author of a coming book, “Birds of the Midwest,” to be published by Timber Press. Send story ideas and thoughts to sheryldevorewriter@gmail.com.
