How would a food web be affected if a species disappeared from an ecosystem?

1 Answer
May 15, 2018

A food web would be affected to some extent, if a certain species disappeared.

Explanation:

Take a chain into consideration. If we break one link, the entire chain is broken.

FlickerFlicker

The disappearing of one species can break an entire food chain and as a food web is a series of different, entangled food chains, it is most likely to get affected.

EXAMPLE

We have a food chain as follows:

Difference WikiDifference Wiki

Now say, we kill off the hawk to the verge of extinction. It will most definitely affect the chain, but now, talking about affect on the food web:

Difference WikiDifference Wiki

As the hawk plays the role of a final consumer in the web, its disappearance will affect the food web. There are other consumers, such as the mountain lion, that act similarly to a hawk in the food web. However, the extinction of the hawk can cause the populations of its prey, such as the squirrel, to increase rapidly. This can have wide-reaching impacts. For example, it might over-consume the producers, like the shrub, which is also a food source for other species. As you can see, removing one organism from an ecosystem can have hazardous and wide-reaching impacts.