Question

In this lab activity, you will investigate how predation, birthrates, and death rates influence the carrying capacity of the killer whale and seal populations within their marine ecosystem. The killer whale and seal have a predation relationship in the icy Arctic Ocean. Killer whales are predators and hunt their prey, the seals, for food. Due to their relationship, the killer whale and seal populations are interconnected; one population limits the growth of the other.

Answer 1

Beluga Sturgeon

This animal has been alive for over 200 million years! Nonetheless, because of current threats it is now facing extinction. It plays a key role in our economy because the beluga sturgeon’s caviar is one of the world’s most expensive foods. In some cases, it sells for over $100 dollars per once!

Killer Whale

The Killer whale population has declined nearly 20 percent. Scientists have found that toxic pollution, habitat degradation and stresses from an increasing amount of vessel traffic are all implicated. Combine these threats with the ever-present risks of oil spills, boat collisions and diseases also help cause the killer whale’s extinction. However, the killer whale is a keystone specie in the artic ocean food web. Thus the eradication of the killer whale will disrupt the food web.

Southern cassowary This flightless bird is one of the most important species that contributes to the regeneration of rainforests that face deforestation. The southern cassowary consumes a lot of fruit thus spreads seed very quickly throughout it’s natural habitat. However, the bird faces extinction because they fall pray to the non-native freal pigs and the destruction of the rainforests in which they live continues to increase.

Elkhorn and Staghorn Coral

Although both of these species are not animals, they play a major role in marine life. They serve as a home to thousands of species of fish. However, because of global warming they are dying off thus also endangering the thousands of fish that habit them.

Blue Poison Dart Frog

This neon colored frog lives in the rainforest that is disappearing quickly with very minute that passes. It is a important specie to humanity since the poison that it naturally has in its body is an potential ingredient in painkillers.

Polar Bear

They are often viewed as the keystone species of the north and South Pole because they usually feed on most of the animals that live in their environment. Therefore, polar bears keep the population of the different species in check. Thus similar to the whale, their extinction will cause the over reproduction of seals and other animals that live in the artic.

As you can see, organisms are not being extinct only in certain geographical areas but in among a broad range of environments and habitats. Therefore, if these keystone1* organisms become extinct, it will affect various habitats which will in turn affect different resources and that humans use from those upset habitats.

In order to understand more specifically the gravity of the extinction of the different organisms and how it affects our environment, I will focus on three species (please note these are not the only three species that are important to humanity and the ecosystem): The southern cassowary, the killer whale and the polar bear. As you read before, these three species are very crucial for humans and the environment in different ways.

Polar bears, killer whales, and southern cassowaries are all interrelated not only because all three organisms are keystone species that are on the but also because the cause of them being on the verge of extinction is from direct and indirect effects of human activity.