THE WEB OF LIFE:

Do We Really Need to Save Every Frog?

Even this “simplified” foodweb looks like a complicated plate of spaghetti! But it is this complex network of interactions that leads to an ecosystem’s stability and resilience – its ability to recover from a disturbance. No component is redundant in an ecosystem, each species fills a unique niche. If we eliminate components, we impoverish an ecosystem. At some point the ecosystem will collapse (termed an ‘ecological meltdown’ by John Terborgh) and will not be able to recover from the disturbance.

An analogy might be your car. Individually, the parts don’t do much. Indeed, if we dissembled the engine and laid all the pieces in your yard, you would say there was no value…or perhaps the value is negative because of all the junk! But when assembled correctly, with all pieces interacting smoothly, and maintained by your mechanic for peak performance and efficiency, you have something extremely valuable: it gets you to work and play…or catches the attention of the gorgeous man/woman on the street.

And as we all know, if you don’t take care of your car, and bits and pieces fall off, you might be able to keep coaxing it to splutter down the road, but at some point something will seize and you won’t move forward. There will be negative consequences if your car has a “meltdown” and you don’t get to work!

In a healthy ecosystem, all of the individual species are “nature’s mechanics,” each doing their bit to maintain a high performance, efficient machine.

The rain is the “oil” lubricant.

Prepared by: Dr. Susan Koenig, Windsor Research Centre, windsor@cwjamaica.com