Indeed, trophic cascades have been discovered across the globe, where keystone predators such as wolves, lions, sharks, coyotes, starfish, and spiders shape communities. The animals that the starfish would have eaten bloomed in number and overran the shoreline—barnacles first, ... the keystone species that disproportionately affects other keystone species… The starfish Pisaster ochraceus is a keystone species in the rocky marine intertidal communities off the northwest coast of North America. Starfish, such as the ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) and the reef sea star (Stichaster australis), have become widely known as examples of the keystone species concept in ecology. Tide Shifts Against the Concept of a Keystone Species Starfish challenge a key ecological concept, ushering in a slightly-more democratic era for tide pools everywhere. Starfish is a predator that feeds on mussels in the deepwater, thereby maintaining the ecosystem. Then the dodo population began to fall sharply as settlers cut down forests and introduced rats and pigs, which raided the bird's nests for their eggs. This is because they affect many other organisms in the ecosystem. For Example- The starfish Pisaster ochraceus is a keystone species in the rocky marine intertidal communities off the northwest coast of North America. This concept was conceived by Robert Paine, an ecologist, in 1969. This film tells the story of the ecologists who first documented the role of keystone species in ecosystem regulation.
Starfish as Keystone Species. Paine developed the concept to explain his observations and experiments on the relationships between marine invertebrates of the intertidal zone (between the high and low tide lines), including starfish and mussels.He removed the starfish from an area, and documented the effects on the ecosystem. This predatory starfish feeds on the mussel Mytilus californianus and is responsible for maintaining much of the local diversity of species within certain communities. And if they were, then keystone species and trophic cascades might be general features of ecosystems—rules of regulation that governed the numbers and kinds of creatures in a community. A keystone species (a plant or animal) acts as the top stone, playing a critical and unique role in maintaining the structure of an ecosystem. Keystone species often dominate the attention of ecologists and policy-makers, who develop specific strategies for their protection, while media repeatedly report on their conservation status.
Well, they are both keystone species. When a keystone species disappears from an ecosystem, no other species can fill its role. A professor of Biology (zoology to be specific), Robert T Payne, researched on species that lived on the coastline in California in 1966. The species was the dodo, a large flightless bird that thrived until Dutch explorers discovered the island in the late 1590s. When a keystone species is taken out of its environment, the whole system could collapse. Kelp also protect coastlines from damaging wave action.
12 important examples of keystone species. In a defined swath of rock, Dr. Paine manually removed each starfish of the species Pisaster ochraceus and tossed it to sea.