Ever come home at the end of a long week at work,
wondering how the place could function without you? It might feel like you’re
the only one holding it all together, like a keystone. This week we’ll take a
look at the keystone that holds an ecosystem together- keystone species.
Without the keystone species, the ecosystem would collapse, or at least be
severely altered.
Examples of keystone species are the gray wolf, limber
pine, and sea otters. We’ll take a quick return trip to the lava fields of
Idaho, then the kelp forests of the Pacific coast to see how limber pines and
sea otters are the keystones of their neighborhoods. We learned about the gray
wolf and the good work they do at Yellowstone back in September here.
The limber pine is one of the few trees I saw growing
at Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Back in
September I spotlighted Craters of the Moon in “Volcanic Idaho”.
In that blog post, I mentioned the diverse ecosystem found there. Much of it
centers around the limber pine. Limber pine is a pioneer, one of the first to
colonize an area following a disturbance, such as a volcanic eruption in Idaho.
Its seeds, needles, and sap feed a multitude of mammals, insects, and birds.
Without the limber pine, those critters would have to live elsewhere in Idaho,
maybe even Utah or Wyoming.
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| Limber pine at Craters of the Moon |
Off the Pacific coast, one of the most important
marine habitats is the kelp forest. The kelp hosts many species of fish,
somewhat resembling a coral reef (sans coral, of course). The kelp also absorbs
storm surge and carbon dioxide. However, kelp tastes delicious, at least
according to sea urchins. Lucky for the kelp, sea otters think sea urchins are
delicious. Without the otters keeping the urchins in check, the kelp forest
becomes an undersea clear cut. Local biodiversity plummets.
This week's information comes from Great Ecology's blog on
limber pines and
Sea Otters.com
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