1

Trophic Cascades and Keystone Species

Ian m. keener

Department, University

Unit Name

Professor's Name

September 7, 2020
 2

Trophic Cascades and Keystone Species

According to Robert Paine’s experiments, not all species in an ecosystem have strong

interactions. Removal of some species has no or little effect on the ecosystems. The addition or

decrease of the top predators causes changes in the type and number of species, and their

population levels, at different tropical levels.

The population of a given species in a trophic level of an ecosystem determines how long

an ecosystem can survive. In bottom-up control, the presence and absence of the primary

consumers drive the ecosystem. In the top-bottom, the organisms at the bottom are controlled by

the organisms, which could be the predators. Top and bottom control in a food chain governs the

flow of energy in an ecosystem. The balance between the predatory carnivores and herbivores

prevents the destruction of plant life, which agrees with the green world hypothesis.

Robert Paine, an ecologist, found out that removing the starfish from the rocky shores

affected profoundly the growth of mussels displacing other species. This sums up the keystone

species idea thus: distribution, occurrence, and the density of certain species affect activities of a

single species at the top trophic level (daily.jstor.org). Sea otters are the top sea predators, and

they help broadly maintain the balance in the marine ecosystems. As they prey on the urchins,

this will preserve the kelp forests, which provide food for many other marine animals.

In an aquatic environment, in our case Pacific Ocean, the predators (sea otters) impact

prey population behavior. When sea otters feed on the urchins, this will increase the kelp forest,

and this interaction is referred to as the trophic cascade (trophic cascades across diverse plants).

Pacific whaling declined the sea otters' population, which led to the overpopulation of the sea

urchins.
 3

References

Biointeractive (2016, May3). Some Animals Are More Equal than Others: Keystone Species and

Trophic Cascades [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/hRGg5it5FMI