Question

Dicuss/debate the following:

7. How do communities based on multiple foundation species differ from those based on single foundation species?

8. Are foundation species really just the most abundant species within a community or are there cases where the most abundant species is clearly not the foundation species?

Answer 1

Q7) Foundation species are called as the engineers of an ecosystem, They physically modify the environment and produce and maintain the habitat, which benefits many other organisms that use this habitat.

Eg. corals build coral reefs,these are exoskeletons of living and dead coral, which protects other species from waves and ocean currents and also used by many other organisms for various other purposes, another example is Kelp forest developed by brown micro algae, which gives habitat for many other organisms.

Foundation species can occupy any trophic level in an ecosytem ( it can be a primary producers, herbivores or a predator) and plays a major role in maintaing the ecosystem services, like nursery habitats for fish, shoreline stabilization, water filtration, timber production etc.Due to the economic value of of these services and the link between foundation species and biodiversity, priority is given to protect and restore foundation species in degraded ecosystems.

In single foundation species community, stress is given on the single species for facilitating and maintaining the community structure.

Ecosystems made by multiple foundation species, the differences in their structural and functional morphology puts impact on community. example is Seagrass meadows which are mostly mixed stands of Thalassia, Zostera, and Enhalus species, They vary in their structural and functional characteristics, and it promotes species diversity,

so in multiple foundation species, species diversity is seen more as compared to single foundation species community. In multiple foundation species there is competitition for space and limited resources , but in single foundation species community it is not seen. in Multiple foundation species it also seen that one foundation species does not monopolize the habitat and allows another foundation species to grow fascilatiting more species in that habitat. example is in Sonoran Desert, shading and nutrient deposition by nurse shrubs facilitates growth of saguaro, and the assemblages of salt marsh grasses helps in protecting the New England shorelines.

Q 8) Foundation species are the species who has a strong role in structuring a community. Foundation species are called the engineers of an ecosystem, They can occupy any trophic level in a food web (i.e., they can be primary producers, herbivores or predators). they are not necesserily the most abundant speciesin a community.

Foundation species physically modify the environment and produce and maintain the habitat, that benefit other organisms which use those habitats. Example: Corals build coral reefs which is used by many other species.

in sea or in an marine ecosystem Fish are the mostly abundant species found but they do not become the foundation species, instead corals are considered foundation species as the coral reefs are used by many other species.