Food Web Hypothesis

Based on the analysis of the food web, it has been determined that the pond is a healthy and stable ecosystem, although a keystone species is not present. This disproves the hypothesis formed earlier in this lab that stated, “The pond is not ecologically stable and there is no keystone species. The pond does not seem to be biodiverse, and the relative population sizes of the organisms appears to be low, based on visual observations. A keystone species also does not appear to be present, or else it’s population is low, and dying out, meaning the ecosystem is collapsing.” Although it has been determined that a keystone species is not present, and the hypothesis also states that, the explanation and reasoning in the hypothesis is invalid. Based …show more content…
Next, the carnivores control the populations of many of the other organisms, like the herbivores in the pond. There is a total of seven carnivores, which all feed on all eight herbivores, along with a mixture of some of the other predators. Because, they are at the top of the food web, there is less energy available, because some is lost at each level in the web. This is known as the biomass pyramid. This also means that the carnivores populations are normally lower compared to the herbivores, which follows the number pyramid. The number pyramid states that a large number of organisms are required at the base of the pyramid(the producers) to support the smaller populations at the top(the consumers). Both of these reasons may lead to some of the species with lower carnivore populations, like the bluegill or frogs, to die off. Although this would not affect any organism directly(because nothing really feeds on these organisms), it might indirectly cause the herbivore populations to rise, because now not as many species are preying on them. This then might cause other carnivore populations to then rise, balancing back out because more food is now