The term keystone species was first coined by Robert Paine (1966) after extensive studies examining the interaction strengths of food webs in rocky intertidal ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest. One of his study sites, located at Mukkaw Bay, contained a community consistently dominated by the sam...
Moss, M. L. 2015. The nutritional value of Pacific herring: an ancient cultural keystone species on the Northwest Coast of North America. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 5:649-655. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.041...
The genusQuercus(oaks), which includes ca. 450 species, is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. Besides providing wood and food, oaks are keystone species in different habitats [23]. Oaks can undergo frequent introgression events and are adaptable to short- and long-term environmental ch...
Salmon are a keystone species. They play a vital role in ecosystem health, feeding the likes of bears and wolves and even the forest as scraps left by predators at the base of trees decompose and enrich the soil. The Wedzin Kwa (the Wet’suwet...
The concept of a keystone species was first introduced by University of Washington professor, Robert T. Paine in 1969. Paine studied a community of organisms that inhabited the intertidal zone along Washington's Pacific coast. He found that one species, the carnivorous starfishPisaster ochraceous,...
“future shock” approach may shed light on species’ stress tolerance, but the observed sensitivity to stressors may be inaccurate36. Apart from these short-term approaches, experiments should ideally include multiple stages in the life cycle of a species (i.e. developmental acclimation)37, and...
Furthermore, given the relative increase in frequency and intensity of freshwater incursions in the Pacific Northwest and the intolerance of P. ochraceus to lowered salinity, there is the long-term potential to significantly alter patterns of species zonation in this essential marine habitat....
Keystone species, in ecology, a species that has a disproportionately large effect on the communities in which it lives; many are apex predators (meaning without a natural predator or enemy). Such species help to maintain local biodiversity within a comm
Salmon are a keystone species. They play a vital role in ecosystem health, feeding the likes of bears and wolves and even the forest as scraps left by predators at the base of trees decompose and enrich the s...