The discovery of blind snakes on the edge of the reserve is indeed good news for scientific research.
After organizing the data, Professor Zhou and his colleagues told the other members of the scientific expedition team to be careful when leading the team to conduct scientific research in this area, so as not to accidentally injure blind snakes by mistaking them for earthworms.
Cheng Si sent the videos and photos he took to his colleagues, who would reprocess them and post them on the platform in due course.
But after all, he didn't discover it, and he didn't catch it with his own hands, so he couldn't blow it while recording the video, so Cheng Si still felt a little unwilling.
He turned over so many rocks, but he didn't find a snake under any of them!
Now he understood why Team South 6 had included Feng Yi.
But this is just the beginning. Cheng Si believes that he will catch one with his own hands later. Generally speaking, he thinks he can deal with more than half of the snakes he has seen.
With Feng Yi's encouragement, Cheng Si was not as nervous as before as the team continued to move forward. Although he still paid attention to his surroundings, his mentality was different.
If Steve found any signs of snake activity, he would explain it to them. Feng Yi and the other young people listened very carefully. Steve's experience was invaluable.
As we go deeper, we can hardly see any traces of human activity, and the significance of discovering the blind snake is not that great.
Therefore, Cheng Si set a new goal for himself. The first snake discovered by the scientific expedition team last year was a coral reef snake, and he hoped to discover one as well.
First, the Bungarus multicinctus is the best in the country and it is an honor to say it out loud. It is better than the water snake or the rat snake.
Second, he had experience catching coral snakes. Although coral snakes are poisonous, he was not very afraid of them.
The team had planned a general route before setting off. At night, they would pass a place where there was a ditch. Professor Zhou also said that they might find snakes active at night there.
The others in the group were talking about where the next snake would be found and what species it would be.
Feng Yi was not interested in their discussion. He was carrying a bag and using a clamp to pick up garbage.
Now almost every scientific expedition team that enters the mountains and forests will collect the garbage they encounter on the road into garbage bags. When the garbage bags are full, they will find a place to put a signal transmitter, and the person responsible for collecting garbage or a smart device will come to pick it up.
As for the edge of the protected area, the research base usually cooperates with various schools in activities, and students have the task of picking up trash after entering the forest.
Especially plastic waste.
Different plastics have different storage times in different environments. For example, some plastic products may remain on the sea surface for thousands of years, while the same plastic products buried in the ground may remain for tens of millions of years or even longer.
Feng Yi discovered another piece of garbage by smell.
After pushing aside the grass, a plastic strip was exposed outside the soil. I took a photo and then pulled up the plastic strip. "There's also a plastic bottle underneath. Teacher Lei, do you want to take a photo of this?"
Teacher Lei came over and took a look. "Shoot! The plastic bottle below is almost completely buried in the soil. I'll adjust the camera and dig the bottle out later... Li Han, you dig it."
Teacher Lei asked Professor Zhou's student Li Han to do the work. After all, Feng Yi was not a professional and there might be human damage during the digging process, which would interfere with the collected data.
After a while, Li Han dug out the plastic bottle buried in the soil. There was no print on it, but the brand was engraved on the bottle cap.
"It should have been planted 20 or 30 years ago, or maybe even longer. The brand went bankrupt during a period of abnormal climate," said Li Han.
"It's been twenty or thirty years, and there's no sign of decomposition." Teacher Lei continued filming.
“Plastic bottles. Humans created them, but didn’t dispose of them well.” Professor Zhou shook his head and sighed.
As a product of industrial civilization, plastic has brought glory to petrochemical industry.
The hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic emitted in the past, present and future will be dispersed across the globe, becoming part of the Anthropocene and preserved in the geological record formed in this era.
Plastic products turn into plastic fragments, from microplastics to high molecular organic matter, and then to oil and gas.
From oil, to oil.
There’s a saying, “Nature will eventually take over.”
Professor Zhou watched Li Han put the excavated objects into the sample bag. "It may take 20 to 30 years to digest, but eventually, all of this will be digested by the planet. It may not matter to the planet itself, after all, it has existed for more than 4 billion years and has experienced too many things.
"The only things that may be affected are life on this planet, including humans themselves.
"Plastic fragments are everywhere, including in our bodies. Humans, who are at the top of the food chain, accumulate a large amount of indigestible microplastics in their bodies. Some are excreted, but some are not. In the end, humans bear all the consequences..."
"Hey, I heard that new degrading microorganisms have been successfully cultivated?" asked Professor Zhu.
“It was cultivated, but the efficiency is still low,” said Researcher Xie.
Afterwards, Professor Zhou and his colleagues started talking about those strange microorganisms, how they had discovered several, how they had cultivated several, and what the pros and cons of artificial interference were…
Then there's how the lab uses catalysts to break down plastic into simple hydrocarbons under specific conditions...
Feng Yi couldn’t understand what came after that.
Forget it, I'd better just pick up trash and catch snakes.
Feng Yi picked up more forest trash than the other eight people combined.
Professor Zhou smiled and said, "I'll give you a raise!"
Feng Yi smiled cooperatively and thought to himself: I don’t want money, just give me a few more points!
Around 8 o'clock in the evening, the team stopped at a place where they would rest tonight.
Professor Zhou and his friends are definitely not as physically fit as Feng Yi and the other healthy guys in their early twenties.
Feng Yi was packing up the tent. Cheng Si said hello to Professor Zhou and said he would take a look around.
"Don't go alone, Feng Yi, go with him. Take care of each other." Professor Zhou said.
"Okay!" Feng Yi put down what he was doing and went to look around with Cheng Si.
When the tent was no longer visible, Cheng Si looked around with a flashlight, "Where do you think there is a snake? The ditch ahead is too long, and there are frogs croaking everywhere, but there may not be snakes."
Feng Yi pretended to shine the flashlight around and pointed in a direction, "Over there."
"How do you judge?" Cheng Si asked.
"Guess."
"I don't believe you!"
Cheng Si laughed and cursed, and walked towards the direction Feng Yi pointed.
Having seen Feng Yi catch a blind snake, Cheng Si still trusts Feng Yi in this regard. After all, it is more reliable than just looking around on his own.
"If there is a snake, what kind of snake do you think it is?" Cheng Si asked.
"The silver ring." Feng Yi said.
"Haha! I hope so too! Good luck with your words! Don't snatch it from me later!" Cheng Si took a few quick steps and left Feng Yi behind.
Feng Yi was not in a hurry. There were no other dangerous creatures around. There was only a silver ring snake, which Cheng Si should be able to deal with.
Soon, Cheng Si's excited voice was heard.
"Wow! There really is a coral snake! Oh my... Holy crap! Feng Yi, come and help!!"
Feng Yi heard the sound and ran over quickly.
Cheng Si was seen holding the snake's tail with one hand, and the silver ring snake was trying hard to get into the grass in front, while Cheng Si was lying on the ground and sliding into the ditch.
Feng Yi rushed over and grabbed Cheng Si.
Cheng Si: "Don't worry about me for now, help me catch the snake, I'll get up by myself!"
When Feng Yi heard this, he did not immediately let go of Cheng Si's hand. He threw the flashlight aside and took the silver ring snake from Cheng Si's hand.
When Feng Yi leaned over, the cell phone in his pocket fell out, landed on the sloping grass, and was sliding into the ditch.
In order to free his hands, Feng Yi grabbed the snake's tail in a hurry and used his hands to rescue the phone.
Steve came over after hearing the sound: "..."
Shut up!!!