Distinctive Trophic Levels

2. Predict: How do you think the amount of land available will affect the rabbit population?

Island area is found to be a key variable in island biogeography. Larger islands sustain larger

“Many plant species have been affected by this, due to deer only eating specific species of plants, some have become overpopulated due to the fact that they are not being controlled by the wildlife in the woods.”

number of animals in an area surpasses the available food supply? More often than not, the

It is estimated that mammoths had the largest biome on the plant at an estimated 1 square kilometer per mammoth (Zimov, 2014). Herbivores of the time ranged from under 45 kilograms to well over 1000 kg, making for a wide range of diversity within the speciation (graph below). While many of these mammals were preyed upon by the carnivores, some were simply too large to be killed by single predators, causing them to be relatively immune to predation (Rodriguez, Alberdi, Azanza, Prado, 2006).

They discuss the variety of sources used to collect data and where they gathered data from in both Non-agricultural habitats and Agricultural habitats. They then present the following: “ Estimates of the amount of milkweed in non-agricultural habitats, agricultural fields and total milkweeds in Iowa from 1999 to 2010,” (10) as a table. They then point out their sources for the data they used on land use. They acknowledge that their land use data were published in 2006 and is therefore somewhat out of date, however, they anticipate that the numbers were still similar when they published their paper. Next, they estimate the monarch use of non-agricultural milkweed and provide data on the “monarch use of milkweeds in agricultural fields,” (10). Their data points to the conclusion that monarchs use agricultural milkweed at a greater frequency than non-agricultural milkweed. In the final subsection of the methods section Pleasants and Oberhausen estimate the potential monarch

Done in part for the requirements of BIOL 498 under the supervision of Dr. David Locky & Dr. Mrinal Das.

The general scheme of herbivore control is predation, therefore the absence of predators and parasites allow herbivores to expand to the point of vegetation depletion (Hairston,

Another research that was done by Conover (2001) showed that, before the arrival of the European colonies in North America, the density of white-tailed deer was estimated to be very high. The population of the deer has increased to unmanageable number as the predators cannot feed on them fully. The case is not the same to public areas that are open for hunting. The population of the deer in those areas has been maintained to a very low level.

2) What advantages do you think each of these examples give the animal (finding food, finding mates, outsmarting predators, ability to live in multiple habitats, etc.) (1 paragraph)

5 Factors that might cause fluctuations in the amount of vegetation in a area and how this impacts the animals that eat the vegetation.

All animals interact with their environment and their ability to grow is limited by the resources available to them. The maximum number of individuals of a species that a certain environment can support is called that species' carrying capacity. Biologists can determine the population of a species based on the carrying capacity by using models. That can indicate whether certain species are endangered or abundant in the wild. There are numbers of factors that can determine a species' carrying capacity and models can be used to show the population growth of that species.

Every ecosystem has atleast one keystone predator that aids in the structure of the trophic levels population. The rocky intertidal is used as a famous example of a top predator controlling the lower trophic level population. The goal for this study is to establish the natural abundance of species and to examine the affects of predation on the different species located in the ecosystem. It was hypothesized that the sea star, whelk, and chiton have a impact on the population of lower trophic levels. A simulation was ran in the rocky intertidal zone removing the top predators. Sea star Pisaster ochraceus, chiton Katharina, and whelk Nucella was removed from the ecosystem and all the species in the ecosystem population was recorded for week eight

The paper is overall written in a concise manner because there are points stated and explained thoroughly without leaving the reader confused. The figures and photos provided in the paper also allow the reader to attain an understanding on the concept, which expand the effectiveness of the paper. The results are what make this paper strong since the results prove that the hypothesis is accurate by stating how herbivory increased by more than 100%, the biomass of the grass declined by more than 60%, stating how disturbances from herbivory on the marsh increased by more than 95%, and how the unvegetated space went up by more than 150%. Overall, the results provided in this paper

It would then result in a comparison study looking at the impact that the size of canines have in prey capture. A follow up study would be the most effective in looking at these species in their natural environments and recording their success rates. These would then be compared to one another to see if there was a superior species and then analyze the potential cause of it. Can it be directly correlated to canine size or would you need to account for more outlying variables that could have a more sever impact on the results such as each species prey availability is that controlled for. Does body size and the environment setting play an important role that needs the variation to be accounted