animals.nationalgeographic.com
Picture:
This is a picture of an african lion. This species is a predator apart of the tropic cascade.
Summary:
This article is about how scientist are starting to realize how important the predators are in our ecosystems. The predators impact all other species in the food chain. In Africa the population of lions have decreased significantly. The numbers are as low as 23,000 and the tiger is near extinction. "Experts on predation have become increasingly convinced that ecosystems are ruled from the top." Experiments show that food chains have been damaged due to the removal of predators. Other examples are that, the removal of wolves would unleashed a large amount of deer. The marine systems have also been disturbed. The destruction of Great Sharks along the eastern seaboard affected rays and caused the collapse of a scallop fishery. Food chain effects caused by adding or removing the top species is called a tropic cascade. Researches are accumulating money to examine predator removal. We need to realize that great white sharks, wolves, tigers, jaguars, and all other top predators are important because they are always portrayed to have little value.
Opinion/Reflection:
I was surprised when I came across this article because this situation is not spoken about very often. I think It is very important to become aware about these type of things. I found it interesting that scientist think that ecosystems are ruled from the top. This article shows that all animals in the food chain are important and connected in some type of way. You never know which species could cause another to collapse. I think it is important for researchers to find out more information on this issue.
Questions:
What do you think causes the population decrease of these predators if they are at the top of the food chain?
What could you do to help prevent tropic cascade from happening?
Do you think this topic is important enough for researchers to put money and time into an experiment?
I was surprised to hear about the removal of predators in our ecosystem. I know from science class that all organisms play an important role in food webs and trophic pyramids. The addition and removal of each organism is crucial to all other organisms in the food webs and trophic pyramids. This is a very important environmental issue and it should be espressed more in the news. This issue is very important and researchers should put more time and money into an experiment. No one seems to pay attention to the issues that involve the predators in our environment, but they are just as important as any other part of our environment.
ReplyDeleteIn food webs, all of the animals are important. From doing the gizmo, it shows that if one animal decreases then the rest of the animals numbers will change. I do not think that we need to put time or money in for researching this topic because the gizmo showed that with time, the numbers go back to normal. I do think that humans have effects on the food chain because pollution and other harmful things are decreasing animal numbers. That is really the only thing I think that humans can do to help this problem.
ReplyDeleteI was extremely suprised when i heard about his happening. I did not know that predators were being removed from ecosystems. Removal of predators play a huge role in the ecosystem and the food chain because they are at the top and everything underneath get affected. In class we learned a lot about predators and their affects on other organisms in the trophic pyramid. I believe that this problem should be expressed much more to people everywhere because this is a very important issue.
ReplyDeleteExpansion:
Yes, i believe this topic is important enough to put time and effore into helping it. If this problem goes on for a long time then everyone will get affected.
I believe the lack of energy at the top of the food chain causes the decrease of predators.
Rohan Varma
When I read this article it caught my attention because this topic never occured in my head too much. To hear that scientists believe that ecosystems are primarily ruled from the top was very interesting to me. I think that now that I know this information that more people should be aware of it. A lot of the hunting you hear about is on animals like the lion and great white which are at the top of the food chain. If we can protect these animals a lot then maybe we can protect other species lower on the food chain much better. I think that this topic is definately worth the research and enviornmental experimentation.
ReplyDelete1. I think what causes the decrease in population of these animals are humans. We do things to these animals like ruin their habitats and particularly hunt them. If humans could realize their affect on the higher level food chain animals I think we could solve a lot of environmental problems.