Silica marina (Sil-mar) = Sand vom Strand
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 ó Sil-mar ó 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, a 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