Only after that can we measure different systems’ community responses with and without their respective keystones. That process starts with creating a list of keystone species – something which has surprisingly not been done before. Our current research examines this Hyperkeystone hypothesis, as well as the potential impacts that humans as a hyperkeystones have on communities. We are targeting our load bearing Jenga blocks, and if we don’t fully acknowledge and address the possibility of our hyperkeystone impacts, our towers will soon come falling down.
They suggest not only that human disturbance spreads far beyond one target species, but also imply that the scope and magnitude of human disturbance is far greater than previously thought. The implications of this hypothesis are pronounced. As keystones already exist in relatively smaller abundances, these disturbances are more likely to push keystones towards low levels compared with other, more abundant, species. In negatively affecting keystones, we can indirectly cause large and damaging ripples throughout ecological communities. climate change, ocean acidification), we disproportionally affect keystone species. hunting, fishing) and more subtle, non-exploitative effects on wildlife (e.g. They hypothesize that through our intensive exploitation of wildlife (e.g. In 2016, Boris Worm and the late Robert Paine (a pioneer of the keystone species concept) proposed that humans likely act as a “hyperkeystone species”. The entire integrity of the tower – and the ecosystem – rests on the weight of that single, small block.īut what does this have to do with humans? We can think of these keystone species as a load-bearing block in the center of a large and complex Jenga tower that is an ecosystem. Because of the key role they play, these aptly named “keystone species” are integral for maintaining community stability and resilience.Ĭounterintuitively, a keystone species’ effects usually far outweigh their abundance, and when compared to their non-keystone counterparts, their numbers are actually quite small. soil churning, predation that keeps prey in check) that affect a large number of other species. These special species serve particularly important roles (e.g. However, to quote George Orwell, “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. In an ecological community, all species play a certain role to help the community function and remain resistant to changes (that can be referred to as ‘community stability’). Instead of creating towers on our coffee tables, humans have started playing a much larger, higher-stakes game of Jenga in the past few hundred years – and we’re about to find out if our tower is going to fall. The game is so ubiquitously known that nearly everyone has their own horror story of testing their luck with one block, only to find it catch onto another and send the entire tower toppling. Search any living room or board game cafe and you are likely to find a Jenga tower lying somewhere on the shelves.
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