[Coral-List] Keystone species on Panama reefs

Peter Sale sale at uwindsor.ca
Wed Sep 10 14:13:42 EDT 2014


Hi Connie, and listers,
Your question came without much background on reasons for seeking this 
information.  I've now seen a couple of replies suggesting some possible 
keystone species.
Just for the record, ecosystems do not have to include keystone species. 
When Bob Paine first introduced the term, he indicated that sometimes 
there are species in a system that by virtue of the way they carry out 
their activities have a profound impact on the structure (pattern of 
species abundances and species presence) of the system.  If such species 
are removed, the structure of the system can change rapidly and 
dramatically.  This does not mean that every ecological system contains, 
or should contain, or used to contain, one or more keystone species.

As to whether there are species on Panama reefs that could be seen as 
keystones, I will leave that to others
Peter

sale at uwindsor.ca                 @PeterSale3
www.uwindsor.ca/sale           www.petersalebooks.com


More information about the Coral-List mailing list