Sentences with phrase «as prey populations»

As prey populations fall, so do predator populations.

Alternatively, a relatively unrestrained jellyfish population may proceed to consume too much of their prey, and cause their populations to slingshot back to a lower level as their prey populations decline.

Not exact matches

Icelanders for their part feel that the EU has treated them as a financial colony while backing a neoliberal kleptocracy preying on an increasingly indebted population.

However, if, as we showed, the scent is sufficient to continue population decline, then even if the predators move on to other prey, and their scent disappears, this is unimportant for the survival of the population that is at risk whose numbers and reproductive ability have been critically affected by the passing smell of death.»

The idea is that the new grizzly bears would fill the same ecological role as their vanished relatives, as omnivores that spread seeds, break up soil and keep prey populations in check.

The models included interactions and competition between predators as well as the influence of climate on vegetation and prey populations.

Global loss of vagility alters a key ecological trait of animals that affects not only population persistence but also ecosystem processes such as predator - prey interactions, nutrient cycling, and disease transmission.

And the whales are beginning to feed at various depths as well as along the sea floor, a shift that may have to do with changes in the population densities of their prey.

When those populations thinned out, the theory goes, they moved on to smaller prey, such as harbor seals and sea otters.

The study by NOAA Fisheries scientists is the first to analyze changes in fish populations sea lions prey on for clues as to what is causing the record strandings.

The annual north - south distribution shift of the population is driven by environmental preferences, such as water temperature, and the availability of prey.

The summer's record - breaking rainfall in the Northeast, as well as depleting populations of bats that prey on mosquitoes due to white - nose syndrome, have increased fears as the U.S. enters its 10th West Nile season.

When the number of prey increases — perhaps as their food supply becomes more abundant — predator populations also grow.

Researchers suggest that the effect of mothers» appetites may help prevent species going extinct, and help counteract the effect of large numbers within a population being preyed upon, such as during harvesting.

Besides possibly leading to a substantial decline in scavengers that may depend on puma leftovers, one of the largest effects of losing pumas would likely be boom - and - bust population cycles in prey animals such as deer.

«Killer whales have been thought of by some as something like the poster child» for the process, «because there are multiple genetically distinct populations [which have not yet been formally described as separate species] with different prey preferences in the North Pacific and Antarctic,» says Phillip Morin, a cetacean biologist at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego, California, who was not involved in the new study.

Birds play an important role in a wide variety of ecosystems as both predator and prey, in controlling insect populations, pollinating and seed dispersal for many plants, and in releasing nutrients on to land and sea in the form of guano.

While estimates of the amount of small mammals snow leopards consume may have been overstated, the importance of large ungulate populations to the snow leopard's diets may have been understated, as this study suggests stable snow leopard populations are possibly more reliant upon large ungulate prey than previously understood.

For periwinkles, the continual arrival of new individuals offers an explanation for why the prey population on Koram has not been entirely consumed, despite high foraging rates, as population replacement is not dependent on local mature individuals.

As livestock numbers in northern India grow, some of the snow leopard's main prey species populations are shrinking fast.

On that same island in New Zealand, for instance, ecologists observed that, as rat numbers increased in the absence of cats, the population of seabirds whose eggs rats preyed upon declined.

«This was clearly not realistic, as the estimated maximum numbers of birds killed typically exceeded breeding density and productivity combined, such that the prey populations studied would probably have gone extinct rapidly at a local level or acted as a major sink for birds immigrating from neighbouring areas.»

Complete removal of the cats will result in additional issues, such as a population boom in rabbits, rats, mice, pigeons, and other pest species which compete with, or prey upon, desirable wildlife species.

However, these animals still require a large area, as the packs are territorial, and can draw down local populations of prey if forced to remain in one place for too long.

One prey item is adapted to high predation pressure and supports the predator population (i.e. pigs), whereas the other prey item (i.e. the island fox) is poorly adapted to predation and declines as a consequence of the predation pressure.

A big hurdle is limiting clashes between people and the predatory cats as human populations rise and dwindling habitat prompts tigers to seek prey further afield.

As an essential part of the marine ecosystem, they keep food webs in balance, keep prey populations healthy, and keep sea grass beds and other vital habitats healthy, for starters.

«In a predator - prey cycle, such as mice and weasels or hares and lynx, the reason why populations go through periodic booms and busts has nothing to do with any external clocks,» he writes.»

As we know from South African penguins, overfishing and changes in ocean temperatures are affecting their prey source, which means the populations of the penguins are affected.

I would like to see our money spent on other issues, such as catching online predators that prey on the weak and children, building new Jails to support the ever demanding prison population increases, more money to our police forces accross the nation, education, healthcare, infostructure, issues like that, which are important, not on this copyright law which isnt an important issue and never really has been.