Ecosystem On The Brink
Main ideas:
1.Researchers in Wisconsin adds largemouth bass into a lake monthly to artificially alter its food web.
2.Due to human’s pressure and exploitation of the resources, the degradation of these ecosystem drastically changes.
3.When an ecosystem is put under so much stress, it often fails due to competition from lack of resources.
4. Diagrams of food webs are simplified due to the enormous amount of species that inhabit an ecosystem; therefore many of them are inaccurate while illustrating very few species affected through human impact.
5. Ecologists suggests that there are places in the food web where certain species are easily affected due to their sensitivity to the quickly altering environments.
6. Due to the easily eradicated species, the ecosystem is easily imbalanced and ultimately, it is easier to degrade it.
7. Some can predict the weak link from the species and ultimately allows prevention from the collapse of this species.
8. There are models that provide a demonstration in which the food webs are altered due to introduction of exotic species or new predators to the ecosystem.
9. Many unintentional cases of ecosystem collapse were caused in part by failure to account for interactions between other species in food webs
10. Scientists suggests that prevention of food web "flipping" is effective in comparison to restore already altered food webs.
11. Using mathematical models, ecologists are trying to determine a set of common patterns that serve as early-warning signals for ecological collapse
Summary
The complexity of each ecosystem is based on the food webs and the different types of relationships each species has with one another. Many of these species have several connections that react as a ripple effect throughout the food webs. Ecologists are attempting to foresee the future collapse of the various species in an ecosystem; especially if these species are directly correlated to human intervention and exploitation. Ecologists are trying to alter the ecosystems dramatically by finding keystone species that are able to uplift the ecosystem as a whole hence the term “flip”. However these very alteration can be very detrimental to the environment by pushing it to the edge of collapse. Sometimes there are interaction between species that are not necessary to the survival of both the species and the ecosystem. However ecologists have realized that predators are very important to the ecosystem; they frequently are the keystone species and indicators of the health of the environment. These very models provide patterns that can aid the discovery in preserving failing ecosystems and prevent the collapse of degraded communities.
Reflection
The alteration of the ecosystem is largely based on the food webs and the interactions between species. This correlation provides insight at just how fragile the balance of nature is; it suggests that human intervention can both be good and bad. The reason for a collapsing species often is caused by human impact upon the environment. These impacts put stress on individual species that can lead to death from lack of resources that humans exploited. It illustrates that humans can impact an environment without thinking twice about the consequences that it will bring. It is scary that some of these individuals do not look into the negative effect that they may pose, nor do they care for it.
1.Researchers in Wisconsin adds largemouth bass into a lake monthly to artificially alter its food web.
2.Due to human’s pressure and exploitation of the resources, the degradation of these ecosystem drastically changes.
3.When an ecosystem is put under so much stress, it often fails due to competition from lack of resources.
4. Diagrams of food webs are simplified due to the enormous amount of species that inhabit an ecosystem; therefore many of them are inaccurate while illustrating very few species affected through human impact.
5. Ecologists suggests that there are places in the food web where certain species are easily affected due to their sensitivity to the quickly altering environments.
6. Due to the easily eradicated species, the ecosystem is easily imbalanced and ultimately, it is easier to degrade it.
7. Some can predict the weak link from the species and ultimately allows prevention from the collapse of this species.
8. There are models that provide a demonstration in which the food webs are altered due to introduction of exotic species or new predators to the ecosystem.
9. Many unintentional cases of ecosystem collapse were caused in part by failure to account for interactions between other species in food webs
10. Scientists suggests that prevention of food web "flipping" is effective in comparison to restore already altered food webs.
11. Using mathematical models, ecologists are trying to determine a set of common patterns that serve as early-warning signals for ecological collapse
Summary
The complexity of each ecosystem is based on the food webs and the different types of relationships each species has with one another. Many of these species have several connections that react as a ripple effect throughout the food webs. Ecologists are attempting to foresee the future collapse of the various species in an ecosystem; especially if these species are directly correlated to human intervention and exploitation. Ecologists are trying to alter the ecosystems dramatically by finding keystone species that are able to uplift the ecosystem as a whole hence the term “flip”. However these very alteration can be very detrimental to the environment by pushing it to the edge of collapse. Sometimes there are interaction between species that are not necessary to the survival of both the species and the ecosystem. However ecologists have realized that predators are very important to the ecosystem; they frequently are the keystone species and indicators of the health of the environment. These very models provide patterns that can aid the discovery in preserving failing ecosystems and prevent the collapse of degraded communities.
Reflection
The alteration of the ecosystem is largely based on the food webs and the interactions between species. This correlation provides insight at just how fragile the balance of nature is; it suggests that human intervention can both be good and bad. The reason for a collapsing species often is caused by human impact upon the environment. These impacts put stress on individual species that can lead to death from lack of resources that humans exploited. It illustrates that humans can impact an environment without thinking twice about the consequences that it will bring. It is scary that some of these individuals do not look into the negative effect that they may pose, nor do they care for it.