Keystone Predator

Sam Judd: Dancing with wolves – Opinion – NZ Herald News

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Keystone Predator

Intelligence from our Friends Downunder 😉

I recently saw Riley Elliot, the shark scientist, speak at a conference.

He backed up his gnarly stories about being up close and personal with great whites by giving the crowd an explanation of what happens when you take out apex predators – such as sharks – from the ecosystem.

Essentially, when you mess with nature it disrupts the food chain and can have a negative impact on other species. The phenomenon is called a ‘trophic cascade’.

Perhaps you have noticed while out snorkelling this summer, that there are a great deal of barren rocks around that are covered in sea urchins. This is because snapper – perhaps our most popular table fish, whose natural stocks have plummeted due to its fame – feed on kina.

Take the snapper out and the spiky eggs thrive, which in turn eat the seaweed and cause disruption for other fish stocks that feed on or live amongst the aquatic plants.

When diving at a marine reserve or a remote and healthy ecosystem, this is not the case as the nature is balanced.

Trophic cascades can easily cause havoc on nature, including disrupting the nutrient cycle and natural processes that maintain the quality of air water and soil.

It usually happens when humans hunt big predator animals without realising the unintended consequences that their actions have.

But what I have found fascinating is that when you re-introduce animals, they can have a remarkable remediation effect. Check out the following video (which is great for kids to watch too), where the wolves that were brought back to the Yellowstone Park actually changed the course of the river by altering the numbers and behaviour of the deer.

Source: Sam Judd: Dancing with wolves – Opinion – NZ Herald News

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