keystone species

Examples of keystone species in the following topics:

• The Role of Species within Communities

  • Communities are shaped by foundation species and keystone species, while invasive species disrupt the natural balance of an area.
  • These include the foundation species, keystone species, and invasive species.
  • A keystone species is one whose presence is key to maintaining biodiversity within an ecosystem and to upholding an ecological community's structure.
  • The intertidal sea star, Pisaster ochraceus, of the northwestern United States is a keystone species .
  • The Pisaster ochraceus sea star is a keystone species.

• Ecological Restoration

  • In this habitat, the wolf is a keystone species: it is a species that is instrumental in maintaining diversity in an ecosystem.
  • Removing a keystone species from an ecological community may cause a collapse in diversity.
  • Similarly, restoring a keystone species can have dramatic effects.
  • Ecologists have argued for the identification of keystone species where possible and for focusing protection efforts on those species.
  • (a) The Gibbon wolf pack in Yellowstone National Park represents a keystone species.

• Speciation

  • Speciation is an event in which a single species may branch to form two or more new species.
  • Many species are similar enough that hybrid offspring are possible and may often occur in nature, but for the majority of species this rule generally holds.
  • In fact, the presence in nature of hybrids between similar species suggests that they may have descended from a single interbreeding species: the speciation process may not yet be completed.
  • Given the extraordinary diversity of life on the planet, there must be mechanisms for speciation: the formation of two species from one original species.
  • Biologists think of speciation events as the splitting of one ancestral species into two descendant species.

• Composing a Third-Species Counterpoint

• Newly Discovered Eukaryotes

  • There are many new species to be discovered, including eukaryotic species.
  • The vast majority of Earth's species are microbial.
  • However, as suggested above most of the attention is given to large species, which represent a very small portion of the new species identified Even with this in mind, since the beginning of this century, 5 marsupial species, 25 primate, 1 elephant, 1 sloth, 3 rabbit, several rodent species, at least 30 new bat species have been discovered.
  • Many extant species may become extinct before they are described.
  • This graph shows how many species discovered (dark green) versus estimated species remaining to be discovered.

• Exotic Species

  • Exotic species introduced into foreign ecosystems can threaten native species through competition for resources, predation, and disease.
  • For this reason, exotic species, also called invasive species, can threaten other species through competition for resources, predation, or disease.
  • Invasive species that are closely related to rare native species have the potential to hybridize with the native species.
  • Invasive species cause competition for native species.
  • Describe the impact of exotic and invasive species on native species

• Carnegie and the Steel Industry

  • Edgar Thomson Steel Works, (named for John Edgar Thomson, Carnegie's former boss and president of the Pennsylvania Railroad), Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces, the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill (Wilson, Walker & County), the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company, and the Scotia ore mines.
  • Carnegie, through Keystone, supplied the steel for and owned shares in the landmark Eads Bridge project across the Mississippi River at St.

• The Species Concept in Microbiology

  • The number of species of bacteria and archaea is surprisingly small, despite their early evolution, genetic, and ecological diversity.
  • The reason for this numerical peculiarity lies in the differences in species concepts between the bacteria and macro-organisms and in the difficulties in growing and characterizing in pure culture (a prerequisite to naming new species, vide supra).
  • It has been noted that if this were applied to animal classification the order of Primates would be considered a single species.
  • If the information is correct, the new species will be featured in the Validation List of IJSEM.
  • A genus contains one or more species.

• The Biological Species Concept

  • According to this definition, one species is distinguished from another when, in nature, it is not possible for matings between individuals from each species to produce fertile offspring.
  • Species' appearance can be misleading in suggesting an ability or inability to mate.
  • Thus, even though hybridization may take place, the two species still remain separate.
  • Populations of species share a gene pool: a collection of all the variants of genes in the species.
  • Species that appear similar may not be able to reproduce.

• Types of Biodiversity

  • Species can be difficult to define, but most biologists still feel comfortable with the concept and are able to identify and count eukaryotic species in most contexts.
  • A species' future potential for adaptation depends on the genetic diversity held in the genomes of the individuals in populations that make up the species.
  • A genus with very different types of species will have more genetic diversity than a genus with species that look alike and have similar ecologies.
  • A recent estimate suggests that the number of identified eukaryote species, about 1.5 million species, account for less than 20 percent of the total number of eukaryote species present on the planet (8.7 million species, by one estimate) .
  • In addition, the unique characteristics of each species make it potentially valuable to humans or other species on which humans depend.