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David Lubkin wrote:
>
> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> >A mall open 24hrs with bright
> >full-spectrum lighting (UV-free so shoppers won't worry about
> >sunburn) could probably even grow real grass and flowers and
> >trees inside.
>
> Does anyone know of anything in our ecology that is dependent on the
> *presence* of UV?
>
> And what good are mosquitos?
>
> (For decades we've poked at designing artificial ecologies, and have
> always left out things that turned out to be important.)
Many animals have the optimum range of their sight in the ultraviolet, for example, deer are far more sensitive in the ultraviolet than in our visible range, especially at night, and have absolutely no red cones, so they don't care about infrared.
Mosquitos are essential food for fish as eggs and larvae, along with black flies, no-see-ums, caddis flies and deerflies.
Mike Lorrey