{"id":2832,"date":"2016-08-25T14:31:12","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T18:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybg.org\/science-talk\/?p=2832"},"modified":"2016-08-25T15:22:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T19:22:04","slug":"blast-from-the-past-plant-specimens-from-one-of-americas-cold-war-nuclear-test-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2016\/08\/blast-from-the-past-plant-specimens-from-one-of-americas-cold-war-nuclear-test-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Blast from the Past: Plant Specimens From One of America’s Cold War Nuclear Test Sites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colette Berg<\/a>, an intern in the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium at The New York Botanical Garden, recently graduated from Fordham University, where she studied environmental science. In January, she will begin a Master\u2019s in Biology program at Southeast Missouri University, focusing on plant ecology.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Operation
Operation Crossroads commanding officer Vice Admiral William Blandy and his wife slice into an Operation Crossroads cake following the first Bikini Atoll nuclear tests in 1946.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every day as an intern at the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium<\/a>, I transcribe the labels on pressed plant specimens so data about the specimens can be made accessible online<\/a>. As I type out the collector\u2019s name, date of collection, and location, I catch a glimpse of the stories behind the specimens\u2014stories of science and politics and history.<\/p>\n

Recently, one particular label caught my eye. In 1946, William Randolph Taylor, a University of Michigan botanist who specialized in algae, traveled to the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific with Operation Crossroads<\/a>, a military mission to test atomic bombs at the remote Bikini Atoll. Taylor\u2019s 1990 obituary described him as a man who \u201cworked in the years of brass-fitted monocular microscopes\u201d and \u201centered the sea in long rubber boots while holding a glass-bottomed bucket.\u201d Before the bombs were detonated, Taylor surveyed the vegetation on the island. One can imagine him peering through his bucket in the surf as he collected some of the specimens shown here.<\/p>\n

Botanists contributed to the war effort in the South Pacific in dozens of ways. They wrote manuals about how to survive in the unfamiliar tropics. They worked as foresters, identifying useful timber for the Army Corps of Engineers. They conducted public health research about malaria in partnership with entomologists. One of Taylor\u2019s students, William C. Steere, Sr.<\/a> even led wartime expeditions to identify Latin American sources of cinchona, the tree whose bark yields quinine, which is used to treat malaria; Dr. Steere later became the Director of The New York Botanical Garden.<\/p>\n

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Following the war, the sparsely populated Bikini Atoll became a test site for America\u2019s nuclear weapons program after the atoll\u2019s leader, King Juda, agreed that the 167 Marshallese residents of the atoll would evacuate. The military relocated them to a series of smaller islands, where they faced famine, overcrowding, and disease. The United States conducted 23 nuclear bomb tests at the Bikini Atoll between 1946 and 1958. To this day, it is uninhabitable due to high levels of cesium-137 in the shallow, coral soil. Descendants of the original evacuees remain dependent on food shipments from the United States. They are unable to return to their forebears\u2019 traditional way of life.<\/p>\n

In recent years, political leaders in the Marshall Islands have become champions of environmental conservation. In 2011, its Parliament banned commercial shark fishing throughout the nation\u2019s waters, thus creating the world\u2019s largest shark sanctuary, an area four times the size of California.<\/p>\n

William Randolph Taylor published a thorough floral survey of Bikini Atoll in his 1950 book, Plants of Bikini and Other Northern Marshall Islands<\/em>. This book provides a useful baseline for studying the resilience of ecosystems after nuclear explosions. In a piece of encouraging news, a 2008 study reported that 70 percent of the Bikini Atoll coral had recovered from the disturbance of nuclear testing. This resilience may be due to the fact that humans have left the area alone, fearing radiation poisoning.<\/p>\n

And so despite the many forms of damage caused by nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, data collected by Taylor on his 1946 trip continues to inform conservation of the region to this day.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

Braun, David M. “Marshall Islands Declares World’s Largest Shark Sanctuary.” National Geographic\u00a0Society Blogs<\/em>. N.p., 03 Oct. 2011. Web. 27 July 2016.<\/p>\n

Hillis, Llwelya. \u201cWilliam Randolph Taylor, 1895-1990\u201d. British Phycological Journal <\/em>\u00a027.1 (1992) Web.<\/p>\n

Howard, Richard A. \u201cThe role of botanists during World War II in the Pacific theatre\u201d. Botanical Review.\u00a060:197. 1994. Web.<\/p>\n

Niedenthal, Jack. “The Atomic History of Bikini Atoll.” The Guardian<\/em>. Guardian News and Media, 06\u00a0Aug. 2002. Web. 27 July 2016.<\/p>\n

Richards, Zoe T. \u201cBikini Atoll coral biodiversity resilience five decades after nuclear testing.\u201d Marine\u00a0Pollution Bulletin. 56.3. March 2008.<\/p>\n

Taylor, William Randolph. Preface. Plants of Bikini and Other Northern Marshall Islands<\/em>. Vol. XVIII.\u00a0Ann Arbor: U of Michigan, 1950. vii-ix. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1946, William Randolph Taylor, a University of Michigan botanist who specialized in algae, traveled to the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific with Operation Crossroads, a military mission to test atomic bombs at the remote Bikini Atoll. 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