ENVIRSCI 214 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Invasive Species, Apex Predator, Mesopredator
3 Apr 2017
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Document Summary
Humans should not hasten extinctions or disrupt ecological processes. Best oath is to protect intact ecosystems that provide sufficient habitat for sustaining natural populations. Preserve species and ecosystems, typically with focal questions like. Bottom up productivity: plant abundance is limited, then herbivores are limited, then carnivores. Prediction: with a change in production, there will be an effect on upper trophic levels. Top down: abundance of individuals in a trophic level is affected by predators. Apex predator reside alone at the top of the food chain. They control total predation pressure on prey species. It is both a predator and a prey medium sized, middle trophic level predator, numbers may increase when apex predators removed. Role of large carnivores may both kill and frighten prey. Perceived predation risk (non- consumptive effects) may be as important as direct killing in causing cascading effects . Behavioral chances to reduce predation risk can be energetically costly.
