An Excellent Summary of Modern Ecological Thinking - From Maggie's Farm

[roberth]

Maggie's Farm link - http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com...-thinking.html

to

https://nautil.us/issue/62/systems/r...aten-island-rp

The article mentions "keystone species" too, like Piaster starfish, wolves and sea otters.

A series of experiments backed up the hypothesis. In 1963, a young ecologist named Robert Paine tossed Pisaster starfish out of their cozy tide-pools to see how their absence might change the local ecology. The Pisaster starfish were the dominant predator in the tidepools. When Paine removed them, their prey, mostly Mytilus californianus, the California mussel, proliferated unchecked and began to crowd out other species on the block—chitons, limpets, and barnacles. A few months after Paine began tossing starfish, seven of the 15 species originally at home in the tidepool were gone. The Pisasters, merely by hanging around and eating the mussels, had bolstered the diversity of the entire ecosystem. The experiment quickly became one of the most famous in modern ecology. He called these high-impact top predators “keystone species.”

I found it quite enlightening as I greatly enjoy the outdoors and all the plants and animals in it.

[GilpinGuy]

Check out "trophic cascade" if you like this. Cool stuff.

This one is amazing:
Trophic cascades in Yellowstone: The first 15 years after wolf reintroduction

[roberth]

Thanks! I will read that one.

That article got me thinking about the numbskulls who relocate prairie rats. These people would be doing a greater service to natural diversity if they killed the rats they captured instead of relocating the rats to another area where men have killed off the animals that prey on rats.

This also mixes with r/K selection theory.

https://www.anonymousconservative.co...ection-theory/

[GilpinGuy]

Humans think they're so smart...hehe.

[JohnnyDrama]

Humans think they're so smart...hehe.

+1