This means that they form a kind of cycle. The extinction of one organism can cause a ripple effect that impacts all of the species involved in that food web. This means that one organism would destabilize the whole food web. The extinction of a keystone specie might force all the organisms to adapt, because this specie is one whose presence and activities strongly affect other species. In other cases the ecosystem is the one that adapts to the lack of the organism. The extinction of species with a strong interaction in the food web occur more often that the others that do not have much interaction.
In some cases the food web would be affected because some animals would not have a source of food, therefore they would not have energy. That way they would have to find another way to get the food or in extreme cases they could also get extinct. An example is like the one in the picture, if the phytoplankton dies or decreases its number, its consumers would decrease their number as well, eventually the decrease of a very tiny organism would end up to the extinction of a large organism such as the killer whale or elephant seal.
In this other photo we can see different types of secondary extinction. It shows how depending on the level the extinct organism is, the food web would be affected. The thin line shows the impact only in the trophic level and the thick line shows also how the population dynamics would affect. The secondary extinction of some organism would depend on their sensibility to the prior extinction. If the organism left from the prior extinction has other sources of food and adapts to the new food web, that organism could survive.
The Essay on Trophic Level Species Organisms Food
Autotrophs- organisms that are able to synthesize food by sun energy or stored energy. Plants are autotrophs that we see everyday. Heterotroph- organisms un albe to make their own food. Humans are hetertrophs. Ecology- Scientific study on interactions between organisms and their environment. Ecologists study dolphins and their interactions in the water. Symbiosis- Permanent close association ...
But if its response to the prior extinction, even if the energy decrease is minimal, is not good that specie could cease to exist. We should avoid species extinction by taking care of the environment, because even if we think one organism is not that important, we could be destabilizing a whole food web that would not only affect the other organisms but it could also affect us, for example if you live in a country were fishing is the most important economical activity and the number of fish decline, its economy would be affected.
