Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Over 13000 species of marine organisms are recorded from South African waters. Endemism is estimated at between 26 and 33%, the third highest marine endemism after New Zealand (51%) and Antarctica (45%). This varies between taxonomic groups from no endemic marine mammals or birds, to over 90% of chitons. [49]: 20
A tuco-tuco is a neotropical rodent in the family Ctenomyidae. [1] [2] Tuco-tucos belong to the only living genus of the family Ctenomyidae, Ctenomys, but they include approximately 60 different species.
A May 2018 study published in PNAS found that 83% of wild mammals, 80% of marine mammals, 50% of plants and 15% of fish have been lost since the dawn of human civilization. Currently, livestock make up 60% of the biomass of all mammals on earth, followed by humans (36%) and wild mammals (4%). [29]
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by organisms in interaction with their environment. [ 2 ] : 458 The biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows.
Several ecological factors may contribute to the gradient, but the ultimate factor behind many of them is the greater mean temperature at the equator compared to that at the poles. [ 85 ] Even though terrestrial biodiversity declines from the equator to the poles, [ 86 ] some studies claim that this characteristic is unverified in aquatic ...
The wildlife trade also causes issues for natural resources that people use in their everyday lives. Ecotourism is how some people bring in money to their homes, and with depleting the wildlife, this may be a factor in taking away jobs. [33] Illegal wildlife trade has also become normalized through various social media outlets.
This makes up the third level in the food chain. A fourth trophic level can consist of predatory fish, marine mammals and seabirds that consume forage fish. Examples are swordfish, seals and gannets. Apex predators, such as orcas, which can consume seals, and shortfin mako sharks, which can consume swordfish, make up a fifth trophic level.
[5] Alteration of an ecological niche by its inhabitants is the topic of niche construction. [6] The majority of species exist in a standard ecological niche, sharing behaviors, adaptations, and functional traits similar to the other closely related species within the same broad taxonomic class, but there are exceptions.