Christopher Carved: Earlier this year, I heard that one of California’s most unusual natural wonders lies just outside San Diego. But when I pulled the car off the road next to the metal fence behind the landfill and recycling center, I started having some doubts.
Engraved (tape): Hey Chuck.
Chuck Black: yes?
Engraved (tape): how are you?
black: Good for you, Chris.
The entrance to the landfill isn’t the most impressive entrance to the national monument, but it does protect it a bit.
Engraved (tape): So, is this the main entrance?
black: Yes, this is the only entrance.
Engraved: This is Scientific American science, quickI’m Christopher Kaved.
I’ve always been obsessed with visiting the more extreme parts of my home state of California.
Way back in time, before Google Maps and Instagram made it easy to see what you could see before you got there, I would stare at a large paper AAA map of the state, find a place that looked interesting, and I was driving an old Honda. Accord.
We went to the floor of a pitch-black lava tube near the Oregon border. It was so dark inside that he could not see two inches ahead of his face. I wandered through Bristlecone all the way to the top of the White Mountains. pine.
But just over an hour from where I was born and raised, there’s a place I’ve never heard of. Miramar Mounds National Natural Landmark.
In a state full of superlatives, including the lowest basins and highest peaks of the 48 Degree Confluence, the tallest waterfalls in North America, and the largest trees in the world, this place guards one of its smallest wonders.
Sure, it’s less iconic, but it’s far more special to look at, and it’s almost disappearing.
A wildlife biologist named Chuck Black offered to guide us. He is the manager here. So I hop in his truck and drive through the muddy road. It is also flooded here and there.
Engraved (tape): Wow we are driving in water.
black: Yeah, it’s pretty deep. But as long as you stay in the gravel part, you’ll be fine.
Engraved: It rained a lot here in California this winter. It’s the wettest winter I can remember in a long time. And all that rain was really good for what I came to see: the spring pool.
A spring puddle is a type of seasonal wetland. These are dry, muddy places that, when water hits them, turn into small shallow ponds bursting with life.
Chuck hopped out of the truck and led us to a viewing platform with a great view. It is a rolling wetland landscape dotted with shrubs and shrubs.
black: Spring pools occur at the tops of these mesas that were once under the sea. And when this was a flat ocean floor, shells such as bivalves and crustaceans settled over thousands of years, forming a cement layer called the hardpan layer.
Engraved: It’s like the bottom of a pool.
black: So if you dig down a few feet, you can be sure it was cement that someone put out at some point. That is why Spring Pond exists.
Engraved: Now you can see pools everywhere. At first glance, not so much. But zoom in a little further and you’ll see life in abundance, including dozens of tiny invertebrates and plants. They are all adapted to take advantage of the opportunities these pools offer.
Chuck crouches next to it, our boots sinking into the mud, dragging a little green aquarium net through the water.
[CLIP: Sound of crouching next to the pool]
On his first pass, he pulls up one of these pools’ most iconic residents: the fairy shrimp.
black: So let’s go. You see fairy shrimp, they’re really nice, nice big ones.
Engraved (tape): And it has two tiny beady eyes.
black: Yes, two tiny beady eyes. They uh… [trails off]
Engraved: If you’ve had sea monkeys as a kid, these fairy shrimp are relevant.
If Bernalpool had a mascot, it would probably be the Fairy Shrimp.
In fact, this natural landmark is actually a fairy shrimp, as it’s located on Marine Corps-owned land (officially, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar). offal Getting somewhat mascot here. They actually make these little patches on it.
black: There are Fighting Fairy Shrimp Medallions that really make people laugh. A fairy shrimp with a machine gun. And every year, right after a fairy shrimp appears, I bring a tank full of shrimp to Commander’s Headquarters.
Engraved: As a side note, Chuck is the resident wildlife biologist at this base, so dropping a tank full of fairy shrimp on the Commander’s desk probably fits his job description.
black: The reaction to seeing a tank full of shrimp for the first time is always amusing.
Engraved (tape): I mean, they are so much fun to watch swimming.
black: yeah yeah.
Engraved: He took me down a muddy trail to see a small pool.
black: let’s see. There are some deer tracks here. A deer came and got stuck in the mud.
Engraved: He crouches down and grabs a small twig of something….
black: This is San Diego’s Mesamint. I picked it up and smelled it…
Engraved: Oh wow.
black: …Yes, it smells like mint.
That’s San Diego’s Mesamint. And this is button celery from San Diego. That’s Eryngium Aristulatum.
Engraved: Both of these plants are endangered species. Several species of fairy shrimp that live here are also endangered.
They are endangered because much of their habitat has been paved or turned into supermarkets and farmlands. Across the state, it is estimated that 90% of his pools that once existed have been destroyed.
Maybe that’s why I had never heard of this place or Barnalpool at all. But what’s left behind harbors a disproportionate number of native California species compared to surrounding areas.
Marie Simovich: Gilloids, shellfish, copepods, antler…and much more than crustaceans.
Engraved: Really- many more.
Simovich: Earthworms, there are many kinds of insects. If you want to be small, there are rotifers and other types of protozoa. There are bacteria, algae and vascular plants. It’s minestrone.
In the next episode, we talk with biologist Marie Simovich and other scientists about the diverse set of plants and animals that call these pools home. Pee.
science fast Produced by Jeff Dervicio, Turika Bose and Kelso Harper. Music by Dominic Smith.
don’t forget to subscribe science, quick Get podcasts anywhere. For more scientific news, visit Scientificamerican.com.
for science, quick— Christopher Kaved.
