Ecosystems on the Brink
Author: Carl Zimmer
A: List the major ideas, concepts, or key points- point by point
B: Summarize the AUTHOR’s main point or idea- at LEAST 1-2 paragraphs
Food webs have been flipped since human activities are affecting the ecosystem. A food web entangles hundreds of thousands of animals. Scientists have been looking into food webs and have tried to create a more detailed food web. They discovered that food webs have both strong and weak links. Food webs have more weaker links because the arrangement is stable over long term. What they did was drop bass one by one into the Peter lake and repeated it every year. They saw that the Peter lake had a dramatic change, there were large amounts of fathead minnows, pumpkin seeds and other small fish in the lake. This showed that the food web was flipped. With the experiment, it helped create a monitoring system.
C: Write a reaction paragraph to the article stating your own thoughts on the topic,using specific citations from the article to support your views
Reading this article made me realize that food webs are more complex and detailed that I thought. Although food webs and food chains are what I have been learning, learning that something so simple as removing a top level predator could cause the whole ecosystem to decline is very surprising. I also didn't know that food webs have weak and strong links, but mostly have weaker links. I've known that us humans have been affecting the ecosystem with the activities that we do, but I didn't think that it would be so affecting that it would cause food webs to be flipped. After reading this article I think that the best thing to do is think about our actions before we do them.
So what?:
Says who?:
What if:... We didn't do anything to prevent food webs from flipping?
What does this remind me of?:
When we did our coyote lab, we learned that all the animals on the food web depend on each other. With one even removed it could cause the whole food web to decline.
- Food webs in many parts of the world are beginning to flip
- Scientists have tried to create detailed food webs but have found that there are usually hundreds of thousands of animals inside a food web
- Scientists found that after a decrease in the wolf population showed a boom in elk and herbivore population.
- Predicting changes is far from straightforward because food webs are complex
- With the development, scientists are beginning to find the rules that determine whether a food web will be stable or change
- Top predators control the food webs, directly and indirectly
- Ecologists turn food webs to math problems by linking its reproductive rate to how much food it can obtain and how often it gets eaten by other species to find the growth
- Food webs can be dominated by numerous weak links because its more stable over long term
- Scientists have found that restoring an ecosystem to its original self is a very difficult process
- It was later found that the rate of reproduction was also important rather than just simply the structure of the food web
- Early-Warning systems tell us when to change human activities that are pushing ecosystems towards a breakdown
- Food webs have a lot of weaker links, because the arrangement is stable over long term
- Food webs can change from hunting, fishing, competition with other species, and climate changes
- When a food web drastically changes, it often stays that way, returning to normal state is hard
- Preventing food webs from switching is more effective then restoring ones that have flipped
- Scientists are currently developing technology that can foreshadow fluctuating changes
B: Summarize the AUTHOR’s main point or idea- at LEAST 1-2 paragraphs
Food webs have been flipped since human activities are affecting the ecosystem. A food web entangles hundreds of thousands of animals. Scientists have been looking into food webs and have tried to create a more detailed food web. They discovered that food webs have both strong and weak links. Food webs have more weaker links because the arrangement is stable over long term. What they did was drop bass one by one into the Peter lake and repeated it every year. They saw that the Peter lake had a dramatic change, there were large amounts of fathead minnows, pumpkin seeds and other small fish in the lake. This showed that the food web was flipped. With the experiment, it helped create a monitoring system.
C: Write a reaction paragraph to the article stating your own thoughts on the topic,using specific citations from the article to support your views
Reading this article made me realize that food webs are more complex and detailed that I thought. Although food webs and food chains are what I have been learning, learning that something so simple as removing a top level predator could cause the whole ecosystem to decline is very surprising. I also didn't know that food webs have weak and strong links, but mostly have weaker links. I've known that us humans have been affecting the ecosystem with the activities that we do, but I didn't think that it would be so affecting that it would cause food webs to be flipped. After reading this article I think that the best thing to do is think about our actions before we do them.
So what?:
- Food webs have started to flip
- Scientists have developed a monitor to know when they ecosystem is on the edge
- Restoring the ecosystem is difficult
Says who?:
- Author: Carl Zimmer
- Scientists
What if:... We didn't do anything to prevent food webs from flipping?
- A decrease of animals
- A decrease of food
- Affected ecosystem
What does this remind me of?:
When we did our coyote lab, we learned that all the animals on the food web depend on each other. With one even removed it could cause the whole food web to decline.