Environmental Science and Examples

In the first assignment, I learned some more basic words, which included top-down forcing and the definition of a keystone species. Top-down forcing is when we look at how a predator affects the environment and species around it. This allows for a larger view of how ecosystems work, and helps us understand how different species interact with each other. Now, most of you may be wondering what I mean when I say keystone species, and the answer is pretty simple: keystone species are species that, if they were to go down, would create massive ripple effects on their ecosystem, changing the ecosystem drastically. One example of a keystone species would be a sea otter, which, if it disappeared, would cause an increase in sea urchin populations, therefore, leading to reduced kelp forest coverage. Sea otters, by keeping the health of kelp forests, ensure the survivability of a crucial food source for other species. I also did an assignment where I learned the true issue that many species are facing, where I learned about something called the background extinction rate, which is 100 to 1,000 times higher than 542 million years ago, according to research done by Holmgren and colleagues in 2017. Background extinction rates tell us the ongoing, natural rate of species loss that happens as part of Earth’s evolutionary process, and this number, as mentioned before, is 100 to 1,000 times higher, meaning that species are dying off at a higher and faster rate than before, and this is due to human activities. In the next blog, I will talk about some ramifications of this higher extinction rate and what it means for us as a species.