ZOOLOGY 651 Lecture 27: 12.9 Lecture
11 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
What distinguishes the language of science? precision, technical, logic, quantitative, probabilistic important for you to feel confident and comfortable with math and quantities contrasting concepts of carnivores: big, fierce and/or scary? fierce, strong, and beautiful emblematic flagship species. Most predators cautious about what they attack take mostly easy prey: Scavengers that can"t wait for their meat to die implies few impacts on the populations of their prey. Why is the earth green? community structure, population control, and competition plants defend themselves predators control herbivores (top-down) Robert paine hurling starfish experiment, top of the food chain remove predators from single outcrop ecosystem changed rapidly. Number of species decreased, simplified itself to a monoculture (mussels, prey of starfish) Otter populations declining: orcas now eating otters, although they generally eat whales - declining whale population caused orcas to broaden their diet trophic cascade: when apex predators controls distribution of resources, can lead to cascade of indirect effects.
