Diminutive animals graze on algae Ecologists expect many more food webs to flip (of food webs takes

place, they are often unlikely to return to their original state) in the years ahead Top predators control the food webs, directly and indirectly Ecologists turn food webs to math problems by linking its reproductive rate to how much food it can obtain and how often it gets eaten by other species to find the growth ey !rincipals in real food webs" most consist of many weak links rather than a few strong ones, two species are strongly linked if they interact a lot, such as a predator that consistently devours huge numbers of a single prey #ood webs can be dominated by numerous weak links because its more stable over long term $hen doing mathematics you have to think about the whole food web not how fast the animal can reproduce %cientist say an once of ecological prevention is a pound of cure

#rom an experiment conducted in &uly '((), led by %tephan *arpenter of the +niversity of $isconsin and a group of scientists, came the discovery of the complexity of food webs, #or this experiment there were -' largemouth bass dropped one by one into the !eter lake, The scientists repeated the same trip two more times in '((., and each time they dropped -/ more bass into the water, 0s months passed in the summer of '(-(, there was a dramatic change in !eter 1ake, There were large amounts of fathead minnows, pumpkin seeds and other small fish in the lake, 0lthough these small predators were once dominant, they are now found rarely, The few survivors hid in the shallows, #rom the looks of this event !eter 1ake2s food web had flipped, #rom the drastic change in !eter 1ake *arpenter and his colleges develop mathematical models of ecological network that allows them to pick up early3warning signs of change that was coming, They do this by linking the animals2 reproductive rate to the amount of food it can obtain, and how often it gets eaten by other species to extrapolate the growth, The flaw of this is when doing the mathematics you have to think about the whole food web, not 4ust how fast that one animal can reproduce, 5ecause of human interference food webs are becoming affected 0 great example is over fishing, 6f fishermen fish for 4ust one species, the animals that rely on it either have to eat something else, or die because of lack of food, %cientists say that one ounce of ecological prevention may e7ual one pound of cure, %o what they simply are saying is, if we start to care more about our surroundings and act more cautious with them then they will be able to continue as a species, 6n a flipped food web, it is very unlikely for the ecosystem to return to its original state, but if it ever does it will take a while, This article ties in with a lot of the things we2ve been learning about food chains and food webs,

6 thought of it as a review of what we recently learned, 8y thoughts on this have me worried, 6f we don2t stop to think about our actions we will eventually 4ust cause destruction and end up killing our planet at a faster rate, 5ut what 6 found fascinating is how these organisms depend on one another,even if it2s to have them as their next meal, 6t2s crazy to me how the existence of 4ust one species can completely alter and or destroy a food chain, The experiment conducted at !eter 1ake is a great example of how human actions affect our earth, $hat2s best to do is to simply let mother nature run its course and take over without human interference, because in most cases of environmental destruction we are the main culprit, The earth can easily survive without us, and probably be better off that way,

So What? $hy should we care about this9 1ike everything else that has to do with our planet, caring for it is so important, $e only have one planet to live on, so it2s so important to take care of it and keep it a healthy and safe place, 6t holds : billion people, in my opinion too much, but in any case those : billion need to keep the earth2s ;health< as their first thought, The earth is a beautiful place and we must continue to preserve and care for it, What If..? $hat if we continued to add more fish to the lake9 $hat would happen9 6t would completely alter the food chain, as we read in the article, 8any issues would rise and instead of trying to fix what the problem may be, we will be contributing to more problems, 6 believe it2s best to let things to their way especially if it involves nature, =es, in some problems we may need to step in, but in most cases nature will heal itself,

Says Who? The experiment was conducted by %tephan *arpenter and a group of scientists along with a group of graduate students, The information stated in the article came from the scientists who worked with %tephan *arpenter,

What Does This Remind Me Of? This reminds me of how we talked in class how we are trying to fertilize the ocean to grow more phytoplankton, 6 remember this specifically because 6 remember reading all the things that could go wrong if we go through with this decision, which ties in with this article, $e always try to control things that we should let go their own way, 0 lot of the times we end up messing things up instead of helping the situation,