Silica marina
(Sil-mar) = Sand vom Strand./(Lithotherapie.)
Negativ: Drüsen, Eiterung, Verstopfung;
Repertorium:
Gemüt: Verlangt anderen eine Freude zu bereiten, sie zufriedenzustellen
Mund: Skorbut des Zahnfleisches
Zähne: Sordes
Rektum: Obstipation (Verstopfung.)
Harnröhre: Absonderung - gonorrhoisch
Träume: Erdbeben
Allgemeines: Abszesse; Eiterungen (akut/Anfangsstadium/Drüsen)
Entzündete Drüsen
Speisen und Getränke: Abgeneigt: Fett;
Geschwollene Drüsen (chronisch)
Tb. der Lymphdrüsen
Komplementär: Ant-c. Fl-ac. Hep. Lyc. Phos. Thuj.
Gut gefolgt von: Ars. Bar-c. Ign. Nux-v. Rhus-t. Sil.
Vergleich: Siehe: Natrium + Meeresgruppe
Sil ↔ Sil-mar ↔ Nat-m.
Allerlei: Of all the strange worlds that
summer brings us close to, few are as strange or as close as the one beneath
the bikinied bottoms of beachgoers. There, between the grains, is a
microscopic ecosystem populated by sand-lickers, sticky-toed worms and
four-legged "water bears." It's a world that remains largely
unexplored, despite being near enough to touch.
The animals living in the sand are often less than a millimeter
long and sometimes as small as 1/20th of a millimeter.
They make up for size with numbers: Scientists estimate that a bucket of
sand might hold thousands of these tiny creatures; in a few square yards
of beach, there might be millions.
This world plays by rules different from ours, researchers say. And the
first rule is: Grab hold of something. For such creatures, even the smallest
wave breaks with tsunami force.
If a wave washed them into open water, the creatures could become food
for small fish, mole crabs or other predators.
Every creature manages to hold on in its own way. Animals called water bears,
which have the puffed-up bodies and stubby limbs of a parade balloon animal,
use tiny claws or suction cups.
Worms called gastrotrichs have bodies covered with tiny tubes that
secrete a cement. Other animals use spikes, which jam them into place, or toes
that produce sticky glue.
In many cases, the animals anchor themselves using sand grains. In their
world, these grains are large objects, less likely than a tiny animal to be
swept out to sea. The animals live either on
or between the grains. "They are boulders," said Seth Tyler, a
professor at the
The sand is a buffet, as well as a shelter. Scientists say the grains
are often covered in bacteria or tiny plants called diatoms (Terra silica.). Enough sunlight penetrates the
sand that these
plants can survive even an inch under the surface.
This food is licked off by worms that crawl over the surface of a grain or
is munched on by tiny shrimp-like creatures with waving legs called copepods.
An animal called tetranchyroderma
looks like a flying carpet with a mouth, propelling itself with a
bellyful of hairs and vacuuming up bacteria in a giant maw. Some worms called polychaetes simply eat the sand whole and
let their digestive system clean it off. Out the back end, eventually,
comes a trail of clean sand.
Life in this world is short: Most creatures live only a few weeks. That
means they need to be ready for reproduction quickly, often a few days after
birth. Some creatures have both male and
female organs, although they don't usually fertilize themselves.
"Some animals can actually switch back and forth" between
being male and female again and again, said Rick Hochberg, professor at the
"Kind of makes some people jealous, I think."
Because these creatures are so hard to see, they've been studied for
only 100 years or so. One expert estimated that perhaps only 25% of them have
been identified. Even now, relatively few researchers focus on this inner life
of the beach, though there are centers of
scholarship, including the
For those who do, the upside of studying sand dwellers is the
discoveries. Scientists in other fields spend their whole careers trying to
discover a new species. In this one, you'd have to try not to.
"Literally, every time we go out, we see something new," said
Hochberg, who has described 20 new animals or groups of animals.
Because these creatures are so little understood, scientists are just
beginning to explore what they can tell us about pollution or climate change.
In other places around the world, sand creatures
have been shown to be sensitive to contamination. But there have been
few case studies in the mid-Atlantic.
Even though they have just begun to map the world of the sand dwellers,
scientists are sure of one thing: We should be glad these creatures are there.
They don't seem to cause any human diseases.
In fact, they seem to act as the beach's unseen cleaning crew, eating
the bacteria left behind by our discarded fries and uncurbed dogs.
And these creatures sit at the bottom of several important food chains:
They feed baby fish and small crabs and clams, which become food for a
succession of larger creatures. Some important animals eat beach life directly,
such as the piping plover, a threatened bird species.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum