Checking freshman year of high school off my list. Summer is here to take its course: beams of sunlight shine through my windows as I look back at old assignments and activities I did this year. Each one brought me back to that very moment in class like there was a movie projector in my mind.
One particularly was when I looked at the results of a practice experiment for biology. We were learning about the importance of keystone species and the impacts they have. I saw myself in a zoom meeting with my teacher sharing her screen. It was a short video about experiments created by ecologists Robert Paine and James Estes. Paine put the idea that the trophic pyramid is not only controlled from the bottom-up but from the top-down to the test. He began an experiment in Mukkaw Bay, tossing all the Pisaster Ochraceus starfish, the top predator in the low tides further away from the coast. There were rapid results. The muscles quickly dominated the area, leaving no room for other species. This brought him to the theory that “Some animals are more equal than others.”
He later met up with James Estes and created another experiment proving sea otters are a keystone species to the coastal marine community. The Shemya island was populated with sea urchins, while the island of Amchitka had otters that kept the sea urchin population down and let the kelp grow. The loss of sea otters after the mass hunt for them in 1741 completely reorganized Shemya’s system.
Biodiversity strike through my brain after rewatching that short film. These keystone species are the glue for keeping biodiversity from corrupting. The video was a clear example of why diversity in life is essential because the ecosystem wouldn’t be balanced without it. One species will shortly dominate, and others will shortly fade away. It’s like the domino effect. Once the critical living life disappears, those remaining will follow, leaving one standing.
“Some animals are more equal than others.” -Robert Paine
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