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Flashcards in keystone species Deck (12)
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1
Q

keystone species

A

species that have low biomass, but large impact on community and it’s biodiversity (can be a predator)

2
Q

keystone species and competitive excluesion

A

keystone species may keep a predator below the carrying capacity to reduce the risk of competitive exclusion

3
Q

Bob Paine

A

took piaster starfish (top predator) out of tidepools

  • decreased tidepool biodiversity
  • allowed bivalves and barnacles to dominate
  • 15 species to 8 (or 5)
4
Q

Malaysian Strangler fig

A

keystone species

  • provides resting location for a ton of species even though it’s parasitic to the tree
  • provides year round resources that support monkeys and 50 kinds of birds
5
Q

communities with higher biodiversity:

A
  • more productive and produce more biomass
  • more stable in their productivity
  • handle environmental stress better
  • more resistant to invassive species
6
Q

Dominant species

A
  • most abundant with highest biomass (not necessarily keystone)
  • some ppl think they’re the best competitors; others think they’re the best at avoiding prey
  • often times invassive species become dominant
7
Q

Chestnut blight introduction

A

killed a lot of the American chestnuts

-had small impact on some species, but big impact on others

8
Q

sea otters

A
  • eat sea urchins
  • w/o otters, urchins eat kelp forests
  • no more habitat for a bunch of marine life
  • even affected bald eagle
9
Q

ecosystem engineers

A
  • cause physical changes in environment that affect community structure
  • e.g. beavers
10
Q

herbivore affect on plant diversity

A
  • can increase, decrease, or have no effect

- have to look at food preference and plant competition across ecosystem

11
Q

Intertidal snails

A
  • eat red (Chondrus crispus) and green ((Enteromorpha spp.) algae
  • when snails are excluded, the green algae competitively displace the red one
12
Q

wolves in yellowstone

A
  • ate elk and changed elk behavior
  • elk avoided valleys
  • vegetation returned, banks stabilized, rivers were fixed
  • more birds, beavers, ducks, and muskrates
  • wolves ate cayotes = more rabits and hawks