The Importance Of Prairie Dog's Ecosystem

Big bluestem grass (Turkey food) adapted to growing into growing in dense stands allows for less competition of sunlight generally, the key to survival are thick deep roots. Anchor into the soil to prevent being blown away in the wind. Animals in short grasses. The prairie dogs essentially are the squirrel of the prairies normally, squirrels inhabit trees, but in the prairies there aren't any trees. Therefore they burrow underground. Adapted to creating guard systems some stay outside the burrow to watch for predators while others mate and connect burrows . Adapted to semi-arid, windy environment with few trees or shrubs. Many Of the animals are thankful for the rodent populations and steal their burrows to survive the freezing to the sweltering hot temperatures. They can also withstand a great range in temperature from well below freezing in the winter to sweltering heat in the

The summers are warm and short. The winters are cold and long. Precipitation ranges from more than 500 mm per year in the north to less than 300 mm in the south of the Prairies. The winter mean temperatures for the coldest months vary from -9.4°C in Lethbridge and -18.3°C in Winnipeg. In contrast, the mean temperature for the warmest month in Winnipeg is 19.7°C. The grasses tend to have long roots which penetrate deep into the soil where they could find moisture. The northern edge of this ecozone marks the beginning of the transition into forest areas. Prior to agricultural settlement in the late 19th century, the Prairie ecozone was the home of millions of bison. Today, mammals of this ecozone include mule and white-tailed deer, coyote, pronghorn (south-central portion), badger, whitetail jackrabbit, Richardson's ground squirrel, northern pocket gopher and the prairie dog. Unique bird species include ferruginous hawk, greater prairie chicken, sharp-tailed grouse, American avocet, burrowing owl, great blue heron, black-billed magpie and Baltimore oriole. Plains grizzlies, swift fox and greater prairie chickens are a few of animals to disappear from the

As long as the weave of grass was stitched to the land, the prairie would flourish in dry years and wet. The grass could look brown and dead, but beneath the surface, the roots held the soil in place; it was alive and dormant. The short grass, buffalo and blue grama, had evolved as the perfect fit for the sandy loam of the arid zone. It could hold moisture a foot or more below ground level even during summer droughts, when hot winds robbed the surface of all water-bearing life. In turn, the grass nurtured pin-tailed grouse, prairie chickens, cranes, jackrabbits, snakes, and other creatures that got their water from foraging on the native turf.Through the driest years, the web of life held. When a farmer tore out the sod and then walked away, leaving the land naked, however, that barren patch posed a threat to neighbors. It could not revert to grass, because the roots were gone. It was empty, dead, and transient.

The study conducted by Weisle, Nagaswami, and Peterson is displayed about river otters and how they are different in structure from other marine mammals. River otters must depend on their thick layer of hair for survival. River otters are semi-aquatic mammals, which are considered to have denser fur than any other mammals. It’s thick, sleek coat, which keeps it dry and warm, is made up of two types of hair. The longer outer hairs are water repellent as known as guard hairs, and the other is underhair. The guard hairs could provide some protection for the more delicate underhairs. The three authors of this article, “River otter hair structure facilitates interlocking to impede penetration of water and allow,” addresses a question upon why the

Bull kelps have strands about 30 meters long with floats to help keep the algae close to the surface within reach of the sunlight. Because California has a consideration amount of sunlight, the giant kelp can be found along the coastal regions. Because of this, California sea otters gather in the kelp forest and snooze during spring. To prevent themselves from being drift away by tides and currents, they anchor themselves by scraps of kelp around their body. In some aspects, sea otters are guardians of the region. Several creatures that shelter in the kelp have to venture in the opening to feed, like the bat ray. They feed in the sandy floor of the open sea, they use jet of water to blown the sand away and expose invertebrates. They will either eat or be

A keystone species has a high impact on a community by keeping an ecosystem together. Most often Beavers, Bears, and Bees are just a couple of keystone species.

The area of research that I have selected is the effects of overfishing in the Sea Otter ecosystem off the coast of California. The effects caused by the fishing pressure on the ecosystem will have different outcomes, depending on the strength and the types of relationships of the organisms present. (4) Red Abalone populations have declined drastically, to the point of the abalone fishery collapse. Several factors have led up to the collapse including Withering Syndrome, where the organism loses the ability to attach itself to rocks, making it more susceptible to predation, or the organism can eventually wither and starve to death. Sea Urchins and Red Abalone are a part of the same ecosystem, and are competitors of each other.(5) Both organisms graze on macroalgae and are a primary food source for Sea Otters. Sea Otters occurred from the North Pacific Rim down to Baja California, Mexico, but now only occur in small isolated patches (9) It is understood that Sea Otter presence can characterize community structure, where they can control and determine the size of Sea Urchin and Red Abalone populations. In the absence of Sea Otters, “Urchin Barrens” are created from the overgrazing of macroalgae by Sea Urchin. In these areas the ecosystem have changed dramatically, due to the overfishing, or in this case the over hunting, of Sea Otters causing a trophic cascade.(7)In some areas, Sea Otters have been reintroduced, in other areas they were never removed, and in others they

Sea Otters as well as many other species are in danger because of Climate Change.The sudden change in climate has disturbed the ocean’s temperature which causes an insufficient amount of food for sea otters which causes the otters to be malnourished and starved. Because of the change in climate there has been a decrease in the amount of harp seals (Foley, 2013) which happens to be the killer whales main prey, because of this the killer whales have now turned to sea otters. Other likely threats to sea otters because of climate change are ocean acidification in the north Pacific, pathogen transport, marine invasive species, biotoxins withdrawn in bivalve prey, and the recurrence and intensity of storm events (Doroff and Burdin, 2015) . Sea otters have a noticeably solid influence on the wealth of kelp through the impact they have on sea urchins, said James A. Estes, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz who was a co-author on Schmitz 's 2014 review and on the original sea otter study. Otters eat urchins. Urchins eat kelp. So in ocean patches where otters are bountiful, urchin populations collapse and kelp tends to thrive (Estes,Cruz and Schmitz,2014). The study, led by Wilmers and published in 2012, found that across the otter 's range the animal could be indirectly at fault for getting rid of as much as 8.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, more than twice what an average

In a documentary film directed by Bill Wisenski, “Threatened: The Controversial Struggle of the Southern Sea Otter,” it reveals some of the reasons why the California sea otter population is declining. In addition, it shows the controversy surrounding the “No Otter Zone”. Furthermore, it ensures why the California sea otter population is important to the marine ecosystem. In the film, sea otter populations are endangered because of the significant impact by some human factors. In the 1700’s and 1800’s, fur traders hunted sea otter population to near extinction. Besides this, threatened events such as shipping and drilling oil across the Pacific and along coastal areas; the California sea otters is vulnerable to oil contamination. As a result,

Sexually mature females can mate year around and are often either pregnant or caring for young throughout their lifetime, and this creates ongoing energy demands that can be energetically exhausting (Chinn et al. 2016). Sea otter mating behavior is aggressive and can further inflict physiological and traumatic stress to females, thereby reducing their foraging efficiency. Other factors such as infections, disease, bio-toxin ingestion and anthropogenic disturbance can also decrease fitness among adult females and increase their vulnerability during reproduction (Chinn et al. 2016). As nearshore inhabitants, southern sea otters often live in close proximity to areas of high human population density in California. These nearshore waterways can be busy with recreational and commercial boating activity that can disturb sea otter populations. Increased disturbance may cause increased stress to the species. Sea otters are of great interest to people who wish to view them, and this is sometimes done up-close by boat or paddle craft. If this activity changes sea otter behavior in any way, it not only violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act, it can also have a negative impact on the species, especially adult females with pups. Additionally, a familiar list of human impacts, such as climate change, overharvest of marine resources, municipal runoff, and habitat degradation likely reduce fitness of marine mammals directly and indirectly. Sea otters can be indicators of the overall health of the nearshore ecosystem (Kreuder et al. 2003). The slow growth rate of the southern sea otter population may be an expression of nearshore ecosystem degradation in California resulting from the fur trade and explosion of human population in

A chestnut colored, furry blur races past you as you are paddling your boat in a North American lake. You wonder what it could be! It is most likely a North American River Otter. In this essay, I will be informing you about this interesting member of the weasel family.

Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are marine mammals capable of spending their entire lives in water. Being carnivorous in nature, they feed on sea urchins, crabs, fishes, mussels and clams. They are referred to as keystone species due to their profound impact on marine ecology. The interaction between sea otters, sea urchins and kelp forests has been studied as a model of the impact of predator-prey interaction on community ecology. Sea otters are keystone predators, whose presence has a far-reaching influence on the marine food web by affecting the population of sea urchins in particular, and kelp forests & other marine organisms in general. There has been a steep decline in sea otter populations due to water pollution and exploitation for

Similarly, sea otters in kelp forests keep sea urchins in check. Kelp roots are merely anchors, and not the vast nutrient gathering networks of land plants. Thus the urchins only need to eat the roots of the kelp, a tiny fraction of the plant's biomass, to remove it from the ecosystem.

In central Illinois, prairie voles occupy a moist habitat, typically abundant with the forbs and dicotyledons preferred by voles. This habitat supports long, sometimes year-round breeding and dramatic population fluctuations are common (Cole & Batzli 1979; Getz 1985). In contrast, prairie voles in Kansas occupy a drier habitat of grasses believed to resemble more closely the species’ ancestral habitat (Cole & Batzli 1979). Discrete breeding periods typically occur in the spring and autumn, and population densities in Kansas are less variable and generally lower than in Illinois (Rose & Gaines 1978; Getz et al. 1981; Foster & Gaines 1991). Under conditions of rich food resources and high population densities such as those in Illinois, high levels of competition for territories could influence the dispersal of young animals (Jennions & MacDonald 1994). Philopatry or cooperative breeding might be beneficial under these conditions as a means of extending the period of 1138 Animal Behaviour, 55, 5 growth, development and learning, allowing individuals to become better prepared for the intense competition for space following

‘Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010. It is an offence to deliberately , capture, injure or kill otters, or to damage, destroy or obstruct their breeding or resting habitat’. (legacy habitat, N/A) This means that only non-lethal control methods can be used and none that intentionally disturb the otters, therefore the best method of control is prevention. An example of prevention is otter