Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Consumer–resource interactions are the core motif of ecological food chains or food webs, [1] and are an umbrella term for a variety of more specialized types of biological species interactions including prey-predator (see predation), host-parasite (see parasitism), plant-herbivore and victim-exploiter systems.
The green world hypothesis proposes that predators are the primary regulators of ecosystems: they are the reason the world is 'green', by regulating the herbivores that would otherwise consume all the greenery. [1] [2] It is also known as the HSS hypothesis, after Hairston, Smith and Slobodkin, the authors of the seminal paper on the subject. [3]
Trophic cascades are powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems, occurring when a trophic level in a food web is suppressed. For example, a top-down cascade will occur if predators are effective enough in predation to reduce the abundance, or alter the behavior of their prey, thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from predation (or herbivory if the intermediate ...
In his 1966 paper, Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity, Paine had described such a system in Makah Bay in Washington. [4] In his 1969 paper, Paine proposed the keystone species concept, using Pisaster ochraceus, a species of starfish generally known as ochre starfish, and Mytilus californianus, a species of mussel, as a primary example. [1]
'Rewilding is the process of rebuilding, following major human disturbance, a natural ecosystem by restoring natural processes and the complete or near complete food web at all trophic levels as a self-sustaining and resilient ecosystem with biota that would have been present had the disturbance not occurred.
California’s eco-bureaucrats halted a wildfire prevention project near the Pacific Palisades to protect an endangered shrub. It’s just the latest clash between fire safety and conservation in ...
An ecosystem engineer is any species that creates, significantly modifies, maintains or destroys a habitat. These organisms can have a large impact on species richness and landscape-level heterogeneity of an area. [1] As a result, ecosystem engineers are important for maintaining the health and stability of the environment they are living in.
Huffaker’s experimental universes showed that while under many circumstances predator–prey interactions will lead to extinction of both populations, interactions of spatial heterogeneity, dispersal ability of predator and prey species, and distribution of food sources can create an environment in which predator and prey species can coexist.