Keeping predators alive helps entire ecosystems withstand climate change: study

[UngulateNerd92]

Predators are an important part of any ecosystem, and new research suggests they also play a key role in helping the environment cope with the effects of climate change.

Researchers in Japan made this discovery while simulating the effects of heat waves on aquatic ecosystems.

https://beta-ctvnews-ca.cdn.ampproj...mate-and-environment/2022/1/23/1_5751324.html

 

[Zooplantman]

Interesting. Similar studies have looked at the role of predators in "protecting" habitat by controlling populations of browsing and herbivorous prey.

 

[Pootle]

I am not surprised at all. Successful ecosystems have taken centuries/ millenniums to develop themselves often. They are 3 dimensional interwoven interactions between water, soil, stone, plant, and all animals from micro orgs to .... elephants or whales......Think about the mass diversity, it's fantastic and so interesting to think about in depth, you can go in literally any direction you choose.

Then pause and consider about human population growth, pollution growth, other species of flora and fauna and their extinction growth rates, how extinction affects these ecosystems and what this growing human population is doing to the worlds many already too fragmented ecosystems.

Sorry to go off on a negative tangent, but it's happening at speed.

 

[Pantheraman]

Not surprised, but pleased. And this is one reason I want cougars back in the east.