6. Keystone species
Dear readers,
Hello, and welcome back to the Voice of Prakriti !
It has been quite long, but to prevent it from being any longer, I'm back with a very interesting scenario.
Imagine waking up one morning and finding your street piled with uncollected garbage. The bins overflow, the smell lingers, flies gather. We ignore it at first, thinking the mess will be sorted tomorrow. But when a day or two passes and nothing changes, the garbage begins to pile up. Frustration sets in - not just from the mess, but from the disruption of something you never paid attention to before.
The garbage collector, who is invisible on ordinary mornings, has suddenly become the most important person in your world.
That’s what a keystone is. Whether it’s a person or a species, their absence reveals how much they quietly held together.
Keystone species and keystone systems are the pillars of nature’s structure. Whether in forests or seas - when those pillars weaken, everything else around them bends or breaks.
Let's take a common example : Corals.
Photo : National Geographic
Almost all of you have heard of coral reefs. Many of us wish to go diving someday to see those colours ourselves. But what is a coral, exactly? Is it alive, or is it just a rock?
A coral is actually a living animal (not a plant and not a rock - though it often looks like both). The soft, living part is called a polyp that sits inside a hard, colourful skeleton. Thousands of these polyps live together, and over years they build what we know as a coral reef!
Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean, yet they support nearly 25% of all marine life (that's over 1 million species; to put things into perspective). And, their role doesn’t stop underwater. Corals act as natural sea walls, absorbing wave energy and protecting almost 200 million people from storms and coastal erosion. Without them, coastlines weaken, marine life collapses, and the entire system they quietly support, begins to fall apart. That’s the power of a keystone - MASSIVE in impact.
Look at this photo.
This phenomenon is known as coral bleaching.
Coral bleaching happens when corals get stressed. This causes corals to lose the tiny algae that give them color and food. This stress is largely caused by human activities: oceans are warming because of burning fossil fuels, pollution from plastics, sewage, and chemicals runs into the sea, and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere makes the water more acidic.
Bleached corals aren’t dead yet, but if these conditions persist, they can die, taking entire reef ecosystems with them.
Other examples of keystone species include .. Before I do reveal some of them, can you guess ?
.
.
.
.
.
Alright, other examples of keystone species are elephants, bees, sea otters, large mammalian predators like wolves (do you remember Yellowstone ?), tigers, lions, etc. All of these animals either help keep the ecosystem in check or perform a unique service that keeps the cycle of life in motion (You guessed it; I am talking about bees and pollination).
Keystone species are not only animals. Mangroves, are also keystone species. They play an IMMENSE role by protecting everything else - Mangrove roots act as a "living seawall," stopping ocean waves from destroying the shore and filtering out pollutants that would otherwise kill coral reefs and seagrass.
Every small action : using less energy, reducing plastic, and supporting sustainable seafood helps protect these keystone species and keeps our oceans balanced.
I'll be back (as soon as possible), with the complete opposite - Invasive species.
Comments
Post a Comment