Keystone Species 2

Ecosystem

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Terrible Synergy

A combination of pollution, loss of habitat, climate change, and hunting that result in a species becoming endangered or extinct.

Prey

An animal eaten by other animals

Preditor

An animal that eats other animals

Extinct

Any organism that is no longer in existance

Endangered Species

Any type of plant or animal that is in danger of disappearing forever.

Beavers

Are considered habitat engineers because they change the environment by building dams. This dam building provides still water in which many species flourish.

Fruit Bats

Important to the fertilization of many tropical fruits and sugar cane. The loss of these animals in some areas has resulted in the loss of many species of tropical trees and the other species that depend on them.

Brown Bats

Keep harmful flying insect populations in check. Including mosquito and the Colorado potato beetle. This reduces disease transmission and habitat destruction.

Plankton

Like plants this microorganism harnesses the suns energy to create sugar and oxygen. It is the base food source for all marine life.

Habitat

the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.

Gopher tortoises

Make burrows that over 400 species of animals use

herbivore

Only eats plant material

pollution

The presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects.

Prairie Dog

This animal contributes to the soil and water quality in their plains ecosystem. Their foraging retains water in the soil and forces fresh new grasses to continually grow. Young grasses have more nutrients for species such as bison and elk. By eating grass, prairie dogs keep water in the soil instead of the water evaporating from the leaves of plants. By tunneling, they help channel rainwater into the water table. By burrowing, they mix different layers of soil, combine it with their droppings, and aerate the soil.

Sea Otter

This animal eats sea urchins, preventing an overpopulation of urchins from destroying the kelp forest ecosystem. Most marine animals including crabs, snails, fish, lobster, clams and many others depend on the kelp forest.

Gray Wolves

This animal keeps elk and deer populations in check. Too many deer will eat small trees, which leads to fewer trees. In turn, there would be fewer birds and beavers and the whole ecosystem would change. Too many elk would overgraze plants.

Bees

This animal pollinates flowers ensuring future generations of plants and formation of fruit for us and animals to eat.

Habitat encroachment and destruction

When the natural home or environment of an animal is rendered unable to support it by loss of land or destruction.

Elephants

Without the presence of this animal, grasslands would probably develop into forests. this animal grazes on trees such as acacias preventing them from growing to maturity. By eating small trees, this animal preserves the grasslands. If they were not there, the savanna would convert to a forest or scrub lands.

Keystone Species

a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically.