apex predator

Examples of apex predator in the following topics:

• Overharvesting

  • Overexploitation of species can also result in cascade effects, particularly if a habitat loses its apex predator.
  • Because of the loss of the top predator, a dramatic increase in their prey species can occur.

• Predation, Herbivory, and the Competitive Exclusion Principle

  • An animal that hunts, kills, and eats other animals is called a predator.
  • Examples of predators include tigers, snakes, and hawks.
  • Predation is the hunting of prey by its predator.
  • This cycle of predator and prey lasts approximately 10 years, with the predator population lagging 1–2 years behind that of the prey population.
  • Mechanical defenses, such as the presence of thorns on plants or the hard shell on turtles, discourage animal predation and herbivory by causing physical pain to the predator or by physically preventing the predator from being able to eat the prey.

• Biological Magnification

  • One of the most important environmental consequences of ecosystem dynamics is biomagnification: the increasing concentration of persistent, toxic substances in organisms at each trophic level, from the primary producers to the apex consumers.
  • In some aquatic ecosystems, organisms from each trophic level consumed many organisms of the lower level, which caused DDT to increase in birds (apex consumers) that ate fish.
  • The apex consumer (walleye) had more than four times the amount of PCBs compared to phytoplankton.

• Plant Defenses Against Herbivores

  • Some metabolites are alkaloids, which discourage predators with noxious odors (such as the volatile oils of mint and sage) or repellent tastes (like the bitterness of quinine).
  • Mechanical wounding and predator attacks activate defense and protective mechanisms in the damaged tissue and elicit long-distancing signaling or activation of defense and protective mechanisms at sites farther from the injury location.
  • In addition, long-distance signaling elicits a systemic response aimed at deterring predators.
  • As tissue is damaged, jasmonates may promote the synthesis of compounds that are toxic to predators.
  • The spines on cactus plants are modified leaves that act as a mechanical defense against predators.

• Fossil Formation

  • Decay, predators, or scavengers will typically rapidly remove the flesh.
  • The hard parts, if they are separable at all, can be dispersed by predators, scavengers, or currents.
  • The individual hard parts are subject to chemical weathering and erosion, as well as to splintering by predators or scavengers, which will crunch up bones for marrow and shells to extract the flesh inside.
  • Also, an animal swallowed whole by a predator, such as a mouse swallowed by a snake, will have not just its flesh but some, and perhaps all, its bones destroyed by the gastric juices of the predator.

• Temperate Forests

  • The leaf litter also protects soil from erosion, insulates the ground, and provides habitats for invertebrates (such as the pill bug or roly-poly, Armadillidium vulgare) and their predators, such as the red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus).
  • The leaf litter is home to invertebrates (such as the pill bug or roly-poly, Armadillidium vulgare) and their predators, including the red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus).
  • The top predators in deciduous forest were once wolves and cougars, but their populations have been in decline.

• Density-Dependent and Density-Independent Population Regulation

  • Most density-dependent factors, which are biological in nature (biotic), include predation, inter- and intraspecific competition, accumulation of waste, and diseases such as those caused by parasites.
  • In addition, low prey density increases the mortality of its predator because it has more difficulty locating its food source.

• Simple Learned Behaviors

  • Prairie dogs typically sound an alarm call when threatened by a predator, but they become habituated to the sound of human footsteps when no harm is associated with this sound; therefore, they no longer respond to them with an alarm call.
  • In this example, habituation is specific to the sound of human footsteps, as the animals still respond to the sounds of potential predators.

• Functions of Stems

  • The apex (tip) of the shoot contains the apical meristem within the apical bud.

• Modern Amphibians

  • Frogs have a number of modifications that allow them to avoid predators, including skin that acts as camouflage.
  • Many species of frogs and salamanders also release defensive chemicals that are poisonous to predators from glands in the skin.
  • The jaws become larger and are suited for carnivorous feeding, while the digestive system transforms into the typical short gut of a predator.
  • The Australian green tree frog is a nocturnal predator that lives in the canopies of trees near a water source.