Ecological niches and their importance everywhere

I have a science background and love to compare environmental systems. Some systems may mirror others to some extent but many have unique relationships.

Some people have a handle on what are called key species or perhaps apex predators. These species may be important to maintain environmental balance. Often new people with a science background come into a science field with an open mind and new ideas. A new college graduate moved into the Pacific northwest with a new career in marine biology. He was stationed on the coast near saltwater. He decided to see what happened if he removed all of the starfish from a tide pool. To his surprise two years after removal of the starfish almost all animal diversity disappeared. By removing the starfish the pool diversity fell apart. Apparently the starfish kept a balance in that small ecosystem.

Another marine biologist in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska was surprised at how barren the near shore waters were of fish and other life.

There was no kelp and the most abundant animal present were sea urchins. He introduced sea otters, which eats urchins. The kelp came back in abundance because the urchins had been eating all of the kelp holdfasts, which attach the plants to the ocean floor. Within three years there were fish and other animals populating the area and prospering in the kelp forest.

In Africa, the migrating herds of wildebeest were fluctuating and unstable in numbers from year to year. Rangers decided to introduce wild dogs back into the environment as apex predators. Within 10 years the reintroduced dogs made a real difference in the environment. The wildebeest spent more time watching for the dogs and less time eating the sapling trees. A forest grew back and with it came other animals like giraffe and rhinoceros, plus other tree-associated animals. The wildebeest herd then stabilized at around one million animals and were controlled by an apex predator.

The key was to force the wildebeest to spend more time watching for the dogs and less time eating.

In the U.S., Yellowstone National park is a good place to see the effects of reintroduction. The park was losing deciduous trees and with them beaver and moose. So the gray wolf, a dominant lost species, was reintroduced. Within 10 years the deciduous trees were returning because the large elk herds were spending more time looking for wolves and less time eating small trees. Without wolves the deciduous trees would not have reproduced and would have disappeared.

For birds, in China a fossils of 50-plus new species of ancient extinct birds were discovered. Volcanic ash had been deposited over their bodies some 150 million years ago. The feathers were kept in near perfect condition with color being retained. The feathers showed that many of these birds could fly. All of these could be predecessor of todays’ birds. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, animals that adapt to their environment survive.

Most people are aware that 65-plus million years ago the dinosaurs became extinct when the earth was struck by a large meter that killed over 90% of all life on earth. The impact area was just offshore of Central America. When the dominant dinosaurs disappeared mammals took their place. Homo sapiens evolving is recent in geological time.

Interestingly if the meteor had struck two seconds later it would have impacted in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and some of the dinosaurs may have survived. Had that happened, it may have slowed down the spread of mammals, and humans.

In 1963 I was in the Army and stationed on the Greenland ice cap over 500 miles north of the Artic Circle.

The assignment was considered as a “black ops” or secret operation with the Army trying to deploy ICBM missiles aimed at Russia.

They would place the missiles under the ice to hide them.

I was a meteorologist in support of a portable nuclear reactor.

When the Army left they did not clean up the area, thinking it was under the ice and would never thaw out.

With climate change, those remnant materials are now coming to the surface and Greenland and Denmark are suing the U.S. for billions of dollars to clean the abandoned area up.

I find it ironic that in 1963 I recorded a record high temperature in August of 38 degrees Celsius.

Today the ice cap is melting and moving four times faster than it was in 1963.

The human race is now the apex predator of the world. We are now listed as the cause of the fifth greatest extinction of the world’s living animals and plants. We are exterminating over 2,000 species a year and that is increasing. Even war has not controlled our expansion. COVID-19 has made at best a small dent on our impact.

Easter Island and the large cites of the Mayans crashed when resources ran out. With almost eight billion people worldwide, and growing, what are we headed for? With climate change in full swing much of our problems may be beyond our control.