Chapter 5.2, Problem 5MI

Summary Introduction

To sequence:

The series of events describing the process by which a habitat is disrupted.

Introduction:

Biodiversity is a variety of life in an area that is determined by the number of species living in that area. It helps in maintaining a healthy biosphere and provides direct and indirect value to humans. When the entire species is permanently lost from the biosphere it is said to be extinct. There are many factors that have led to extinction of many species and are threat to biodiversity.

Answer to Problem 5MI

  

Explanation of Solution

Habitats might not be destroyed but they may be disrupted. Even if one member in a food web declines in number it can adversely alter the other members. The decline in one species can affect the entire ecosystem. When one species plays a large role in an ecosystem, that species is called a keystone species.

Overhunting of a species can cause natural predators such as a lion to disappear from a forest ecosystem. This will result in increase in deer population which will now eat up all the young trees in the forest. As trees disappear, ferns will grow instead of trees. This will affect the insects that live under the bark of trees. Eventually the birds that feed on insects will also die as they will not get any food. Mammals like squirrels and rabbits that live in and around trees also start disappearing. So the owls that prey on these small mammals also decline in numbers. Hence, the entire food web is affected when the habitat of lion is disrupted.