Category Science

HOW CAN GARDENING IMPROVE OUR MENTAL HEALTH?

Gardening has been around for as long as humans have been growing plants for their personal needs. Through the years, gardens have served not only as places to grow plants but as spaces for people to relax, to focus, and to connect with nature and each other.

Gardening can improve many aspects of mental health, focus, and concentration and also enhance the positive well-being of an individual. Some of the ways in which gardening helps include:

1. Enhancement of mood: Gardening can make you feel more peaceful and content. It enhances a positive mood and also helps in directing your attention towards immediate tasks and details of gardening that can reduce negative thoughts and feelings.

2. Self-esteem development or boost: Self-esteem is how much you value and feel positively about yourself. When you see your work pay off with healthy plants, your sense of pride gets a boost. Many people find a sense of purpose and meaning in looking after plants and feel that plants are like children that they are rearing.

3. Improves attention and concentration: Gardening can change how well you pay attention to any activity. If you struggle with staying focused on any task, gardening can help you learn to concentrate on what’s right in front of you without getting distracted. The gardening process involves multi-tasking and improves co-ordination and attention to tasks and minute details.

4. Serves as a source of exercise: Weeding, digging and raking are good exercises. Regular exercise reduces anxiety, depression, and other mental issues, and can help prevent dementia. If you don’t like going to the gym, gardening can be an enjoyable task to still get these benefits as it includes a lot of movement and lifting of plants and pots.

5. Promotes social bonding: Gardening with others at a community garden or as a family takes teamwork to achieve shared goals. Being part of a larger group can benefit your mental health by increasing your social connections and your support systems. Appreciation from others on gardening also enhances social interactions.

Gardening reminds us of our connection to nature, and helps us focus on the bigger picture, which can alleviate symptoms of depression. Also, the physical aspect of gardening releases feel-good chemicals in the brain such as serotonin and dopamine. In short, working with soil makes us happier.

Flowers and ornamental plants increase levels of positive energy and help people feel secure and relaxed. Adding flowers to your home or work environment reduces your perceived stress levels and makes you feel more relaxed, secure and happy. Many flowers help filter out carbon dioxide pollution for oxygen (which helps keep us alive); they also eliminate chemical toxins (benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, etc.) and their effects found in our homes. Health professionals should therefore encourage their patients to make use of green spaces and to work in gardens, and should pressure local authorities to increase open spaces and the number of trees, thus also helping to counteract air pollution and climate change. Therapeutic gardens have been used in hospitals for many years, and were strongly supported by Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, as they improve the surroundings for patients, visitors and staff. Few complementary therapies have been convincingly shown to be effective, but gardening and nature, which are alternative therapies, offer a proven, cheap and nearly universally available means to improve a nation’s health.

So, get a plant and enhance your mental health today!

Picture Credit : Google 

HOW IS THE SPARROW IMPORTANT IN MAINTAINING A HEALTHY ECOLOGICAL BALANCE?

Sparrow serves the ecosystem of the earth. Sparrows mostly prefer seeds of millet, thistle, weed and sunflower seed. However, they also eat fruits and berries. During this process, sparrows spread seeds to places away from the fruit tree. This is important for germination of the seeds, because if the seeds fall close to the parent plant, they would have to compete for nutrition with the mature plant. This would reduce the chance of germination of the seed as well as growth of the plant once the seed germinated. By spreading seeds, sparrows help the survival of many plants that are the producers in an ecosystem.

Although primarily seed-eaters, sparrows also feed on small insects and worms such as caterpillars, beetles and aphids. Some of these creatures destroy certain plants. Sparrows keep their population in check; otherwise, the insects would have eaten certain plant species to extinction. Here also sparrows play an important role in preserving the ecosystem.

Most birds of prey, such as eagles and falcons, eat other smaller birds. Snakes, which are also secondary consumers, are known to eat sparrows. For example, sharp-shinned hawks prefer sparrows for food.. Hence by providing food for the secondary consumers, sparrows play an important role in their survival and in preserving the ecosystem.

Picture Credit : Google 

WHAT IS BIOLOGICAL WEATHERING?

When lichen and moss growing on a rock create an environment that causes rocks to break down both physically and chemically.

Biological weathering also means organic weathering. It is the disintegration of rocks as a result of the action by living organisms. Plant and animals have a significant effect on the rocks as they penetrate or burrow into the soil respectively. Biological weathering can work hand in hand with physical weathering by weakening rock or exposing it to the forces of physical or chemical weathering.

For instance, some plants and trees grow within the fractures in the rock formation. As they penetrate into the soil, and their roots get bigger, they exert pressure on rocks and make the cracks wider and deeper that weaken and eventually disintegrate the rocks. Microscopic organisms can also produce organic chemicals that can contribute to the rock’s mineral weathering.

Biological weathering is a very common type of weathering that we see around us. There are many small animals that bore hole in the rock and live inside it. Over the time, they burrow and widen cracks and end up breaking rocks apart. Then there are bacteria, algae and lichens produce chemicals that help break down the rock on which they survive, so they can get the nutrients they need. They produce weak acids which convert some of the minerals to clay. We, humans, are also responsible for biological weathering. As we construct more homes, industries, dams, power plants, roads, we rip the rocks apart.

Credit: Earth Eclipse

Picture Credit : Google 

DO BACTERIA AND FUNGI SPEED UP WEATHERING?

When water collects in the cracks of a rock, it can freeze when temperatures drop. The ice expands and the pressure can split the rock. In cold, mountain regions, one can even hear gunshot-like cracks as rocks are split apart by frost.

A mechanical process, freeze-thaw weathering causes the ?joints?(cracks) in rocks to expand, which wedges parts of rocks apart. Because water expands by about 10% when it freezes, this creates outward pressure in rock joints, making the cracks larger.

Joints occur naturally in rocks as a result of their formation. Fractures that are not offset, joints do allow for the entry of water into rocks.

In climates where temperatures dip below freezing in the winter, moisture in the joints of rocks solidifies as ice. Over time, after several cycles of freezing and thawing, joints get large enough that bit of rock start to fall off in smaller pieces. This breakdown of rock happens faster at higher altitudes, where many freeze-thaw cycles can occur during the year.

Credit: Sciencing

Picture Credit : Google 

WHAT IS WEATHERING CAUSED BY SALT CRYSTALS CALLED?

Haloclasty is a type of physical weathering caused by the growth of salt crystals. The process is first started when saline water seeps into cracks and evaporates depositing salt crystals. When the rocks are then heated, the crystals will expand putting pressure on the surrounding rock which will over time splinter the stone into fragments.

Salt crystallization may also take place when solutions decompose rocks (for example, limestone and chalk) to form salt solutions of sodium sulfate or sodium carbonate, from which water evaporates to form their respective salt crystals.

The salts which have proved most effective in disintegrating rocks are sodium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, and calcium chloride. Some of these salts can expand up to three times or more in volume.

It is normally associated with arid climates where strong heating causes strong evaporation and therefore salt crystallization. It is also common along coasts. An example of salt weathering can be seen in the honeycombed stones in sea walls.

Credit: Wikipedia

Picture Credit : Google 

HOW DOES FROST BREAK UP ROCKS?

When water collects in the cracks of a rock, it can freeze when temperatures drop. The ice expands and the pressure can split the rock. In cold, mountain regions, one can even hear gunshot-like cracks as rocks are split apart by frost.

A mechanical process, freeze-thaw weathering causes the joints? (cracks) in rocks to expand, which wedges parts of rocks apart. Because water expands by about 10% when it freezes, this creates outward pressure in rock joints, making the cracks larger.

Joints occur naturally in rocks as a result of their formation. Fractures that are not offset, joints do allow for the entry of water into rocks.

In climates where temperatures dip below freezing in the winter, moisture in the joints of rocks solidifies as ice. Over time, after several cycles of freezing and thawing, joints get large enough that bit of rock start to fall off in smaller pieces. This breakdown of rock happens faster at higher altitudes, where many freeze-thaw cycles can occur during the year.

Credit: Sciencing

Picture Credit : Google