Question

In 2018, Isle Royale was home to only one or two highly inbred wolves. If humans had not intervened by introducing more wolves to the island, the wolves would have disappeared from the island. Tell what would have happened with the moose and plant populations in upcoming years if wolves disappeared from the island and explain why. Please outline a draft offline and then type your final answer in the box; the best answers will:

• be concise, without irrelevant or incorrect information
• include the relationships between wolves, moose, and island plants
• discuss carrying capacity and density dependent factors

Answer 1

Any ecosystem is a dynamic entity and it survives in a healthy way only if all its components, biotic as well as abiotic, interact with each other in a sustainable manner. If any of the components are disturbed, it might affect the ecosystem in an adverse way. Although, nature has its own way of overcoming such disturbances.

The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is defined as maximum population size of a species that can be sustained successfully in that ecosystem given the food, water, habitat and other resources available.

In the food chain involving the wolves, moose and the plant population on the island, it is evident that the moose feed on the plants and the wolves prey on the moose. Thus, the population of each species is controlled, and if the population of any one of these exceeds the carrying capacity of the ecosystem, it is balanced naturally.

In the above scenario, if the wolves were to disappear from the island, the moose population would grow uncontrollably. The burgeoning moose population would put excessive strain on the plants on which they feed. The plants would decrease in number, making food scarce for the moose population.

Now, the density dependent factors like availability of food, disease, migration and migration would come into play. Migration of moose population is not possible because they live on an island. Predation is not ther because the wolves have disappeared. Food will be scarce because of the increased population. Hence, in this case, disease is the only factor which can affect the moose population and bring some sort of balance in the ecosystem, because if the moose population will decrease, the plants will get a chance to regenerate.