What are the effects of the loss of an ecological niche?

1. What are the effects of the loss of an ecological niche? Sauleha Husain Br. Nassry 9g2 ecological niche

2. What is an ecological niche? • Every species occupies an ecological niche, which is a role in an ecosystem. Only one species at a time can occupy a particular niche. If more than one species occupy one niche, there will be competition.

3. Darwin’s Finches • The concept of an ecological niche can not be mentioned without Darwin’s Finches. These finches illustrated adaptive radiation.

4. Adaptive Radiation • Adaptive radiation is where species all deriving from a common ancestor have over time successfully adapted to their environment via natural selection, creating new ecological niches for each breed to occupy.

5. The importance of ecological niches • Each species' ecological niche includes their spot in the food chain. If an species is missing from an ecosystem’s food chain, then it may cause the entire ecosystem to fail, and ultimately die.

6. If for example… • … a sudden plague strikes all salmon, then the birds that eat salmon will start to die out if they don’t adapt or migrate, as will the foxes that feed on the birds. The sudden emptiness of multiple ecological niches would affect the entire ecosystem.

7. Back up plans • However, this is not always the case. If a certain type of salmon began to die out, then only one ecological niche would empty and predators who feed off salmon would adapt to eating another type of salmon. This is natures back up plan for such incidents.

8. Ecological niche of humans • Like every other species, humans occupy their own ecological niche, although no animals rely on humans for food. However, humans do not serve a part in the food chain as they grow their own food. They do, however destroy food chains.

9. A sudden addition • Humans destroy food chains and ecosystems by suddenly adding exotic animals. • An example of this would be the national bird of Hawaii- the Nene goose. Mongoose were brought to eat the rats, but they ended up eating the eggs of the Nene geese instead. There are now less than 800 Nene geese left in Hawaii.

10. It is weeds the butterflies need • The Karner blue butterfly illustrates an effect that humans have on the balance of the ecosystem. • Karner butterflies feed off of lupines- a weed that humans often kill off, and thus endangering the butterflies.

11. Question answered • The loss of one ecological niche can cause the destruction of an entire ecosystem.