Wildebeests: A Keystone Species Use the data provided to answer the question below in CER format. Make sure to use at least two pieces of evidence to claim and provide reasoning. FIRE! Fire is actually an important component of savanna ecosystems. Fire kills young trees and seedlings, reducing the number of big adult trees that grow over time. Since trees compete with grasses for light and soil moisture, fire actually helps the grasses and keeps the savannas open. Dr. Rico Holdo, a professor at the University of Missouri, and his colleagues modeled and wrote about the interactions of fire, rain, grasses, trees, and the various animals in the Serengeti. The interactions get complicated quickly, but Ill try to give you a run-down of how they see fire acting in this ecosystem. First, as Ive mentioned, fire suppresses trees and encourages grasses. If you have both fire and rain, but no animals, then something interesting happens: the rain encourages the trees, but it encourages the grasses, too. As the grasses get taller, there is more fuel for fire, and the fires become more widespread and more damaging. These fiercer fires really hurt the trees in fact, the damage from fires (because of more rain) is more important than the extra boost the trees get directly from the rain. So more rain actually means fewer trees. With me so far? Were now going to throw animals into the mix well, at least some of the animals. Lets talk about the grazers. The grazers eat the grass, and this reduces the fuel available to fire. If you have a lot of grazers, like we do in the Serengeti, the grass height is reduced a lot. That means fewer fires and that rain once again helps the trees. Further, many of the grazers are migratory and move around the landscape a lot. They dont eat the savanna grasses in a neat, tidy, organized way. Instead, they create a patchy mosaic of grass heights, and with those different grass heights come different susceptibility of patches of grass to burn. With rain and fire and grazers, we now have a landscape of grasses of different lengths, patchy fires, and some areas dense with trees and some areas with fewer trees. All that variation means more diversity more diversity of the grasses, plants, and trees, and more diversity of the animals that rely on them. All that diversity is due, in part, to fire. A Keystone species is a plant or animal that plays an important and unique role in how the ecosystem functions without the key stone species to ecosystem would be very different. One scientist identified Keystone specie it to look as how changes to their abundance (number ) affect other organisms. Often, there are many indirect effects of changes to ecosystems. Claim The wildebeest in the Serengeti are a keystone species. What evidence supports this claim? (Make sure to provide reasoning)

Question

xborer · Accepted Answer

The evidence which supports this claim is that wildebeest grazing habits help reduce grass height and prevent fire spread.

What reasons are behind wildebeest in the Serengeti?

Evidence 1: Grazing habits of wildebeest help reduce grass height and prevent the spread of fires. As mentioned in the article, grazers like wildebeest eat the grass and reduce the fuel available for fires, which prevents fires from spreading and damaging the trees.

Evidence 2: Migration patterns of wildebeest create a patchy mosaic of grass heights that affect the susceptibility of grass patches to burn. The article states that wildebeest are migratory and create a patchy mosaic of grass heights. This means that some areas of the savanna are dense with trees, while others have fewer trees.

These wildebeest are a keystone species in the Serengeti because of their grazing habits and migration patterns, which help to maintain a diverse ecosystem. Without wildebeest, the grass height would increase, leading to more frequent and more damaging fires. This would negatively impact the trees and reduce the diversity of the ecosystem.

Answers

Related Questions

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers