Feb. 28, 2013 —
Previous studies have shown that carnivores can have indirect positive effects
on each other, which means that when one species is lost, others could soon
follow. A team from the University of Exeter and the University of Bern
Published
online February 28, 2013 in the journal Ecology Letters, the study shows that simply reducing the
population size of one carnivore can indirectly cause another similar species
to become extinct. The research shows that changes in population size, as well
as extinction, can create ripple effects across sensitive food webs with
far-reaching consequences for many other animals.
The research
shows that species could suffer just as much from harm to another species as
from being under direct threat themselves. This adds weight to growing evidence
that a 'single species' approach to conservation, for example in fisheries
management, is misguided. Instead the focus needs to be holistic, encompassing
species across an entire ecosystem.
The
researchers assembled experimental ecosystems with three species of parasitic
wasps, along with the three types of aphids on which each wasp exclusively
feeds. They set up four sets of tanks each containing the three aphid and three
wasp species and allowed the populations to establish for eight weeks. Over the
next 14 weeks (seven insect generations) the researchers removed a proportion
of the wasps from three of the sets of tanks every day -- one species from each
set. The fourth set had no wasps removed.
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