Keystone Species

Try balancing on one foot. You may do it well on first try. At my age, part of my daily exercise routine is to alternately stand on one foot along with getting on the floor and getting back up. That balance improves my overall functioning. A keystone species works the same in the functioning of an ecosystem. The loss of a keystone species changes the dynamics of an ecosystem much like losing your balance affects your day to day activities.

As ecosystems are stressed by human activities, there is a greater need to protect keystone species. A keystone species protects an ecosystems health by it's activities. The keystone species is usually a predator.

Where I live, coyotes are considered a problem and there is no limit on how many people can hunt. However, coyotes do have their benefits. They are very adaptive animals and are found in urban areas such as Atlanta, GA.

Coyotes keep the population of rabbits, mice and other small animals down. On the sad side, they love cats. Near my home there have been some short-lived cat colonies. They were short lived in that coyotes love to eat them. I have one cat who lives in the house for obvious reasons.

It sounds cruel that the coyotes eat the beautiful bunnies, rascally squirrels, harmless field mice; but, eat of these species can overpopulate and become a problem. And this goes back to balance. When a population overpopulates they can destroy their own food supply and make room for invasive species that would not fill the void.

There are other predators present such as the bobcat, fox and a few bears in the Southern pine forests. Move to rivers and creeks and you will find alligators.

When sea otters were over hunted in the Pacific Northwest, their food source the sea urchin overpopulated. The sea urchins ate the kelp forests underwater which provided food and protection for many species. The kelp forest ecosystem was unstable and began disappearing. Fortunately, sea otters have made a comeback.

Hummingbirds are a keystone species in the Sonoran desert. Their feeding activities pollinates many desert plants that would not have a pollinator otherwise.

Although they are herbivores, elephants are a keystone species to the African Savannah. They eat and pull up the acacia tree. Otherwise the trees would grow until a forest occurred which would be detrimental to the many migrating grazing species such as the wildebeest, antelopes and zebras.

I've taken some of this information from the following National Geographic link.
http://education.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/keystone-species/