Predator-Mediated Coexistence: Collective Survival + Population Bottleneck

Predator-Mediated Coexistence
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Predator-Mediated Coexistence
Predation is a process of interaction between different species where one species feed on the other. Predation is important in controlling the abundance, distribution, and diversity of species in an ecological community. One real example of predator-mediated coexistence is the introduction of hyena in a food chain of grass that is the producers, antelopes, and lions. Increasing the number of hyenas in the ecological community will affect the ecological balance in several ways. One, the number of antelopes will rapidly reduce due to the high number of predators. Secondly, the number of lions will also reduce due to competition for prey. The population of grass rapidly increases because the number of consumers that is antelopes is low (Umbanhowar & McCann, 2005).
The relationship of the species contributes to their collective survival by mediating the instances of discontinuation of the generation of specific species in the ecological community. In the food chain of grass, antelopes, and lions, there is a balance because the Lions reduce the number of antelopes to prevent overdependence on grass that may lead to the reduction of grass. On the other hand, the grass technically controls the number of lions by balance production to control the number of antelopes in the ecological community. The population of lions cannot exceed the sustainable limit because it depends on the antelopes, which in return depend on the grass (Umbanhowar & McCann, 2005). In the case of one of the species in the food chain of grass, antelopes, and lions go through a population bottleneck, there must be a change in the population of all species in the food chain. Drought may...