What animal or insect going extinct would have the greatest impact on the ecosystem?
Curious on some replies here. I always hear having bees go extinct would be horrible for us. Curious if that’s the worse?
View original on lemmy.ml
Curious on some replies here. I always hear having bees go extinct would be horrible for us. Curious if that’s the worse?
Humans, probably. Just look at the impact COVID had on the environment.
Yeah, runaway global warming might not happen. Plant monocultures would begin to disappear. New invasive species wouldn’t happen, though existing ones might have a better time for a bit. Major thoroughfares wouldn’t create barriers to migration. Dams might take centuries to collapse, but I think humans going extinct might have one of the biggest impacts.
Humans, absolutely. That's an easy answer.
But if you exclude humans, that's where you have some debate. I see bees and spiders mentioned in this thread and I'm inclined to agree with bees, because of how vital those dudes are for pollination and thus for any animal that ultimately relies on plants (hint: that's all of them! predators also need a population of herbivores to feast on)
Bees
Or the hounds? Or the hounds the when they bark, shoot bees out of their mouth?
Ever wondered what happened to all these bugs on the car when driving through the countryside? There is already something big happening and we are just getting started.
Here is a talk on the topic of insects driven to the point of extinction due to neonicotinoid pesticides (unfortunately the talk is in german. Maybe someone is able to find a english version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_p9yYXZuCI
Bees probably
Beat me to it
Definitely the phytoplankton since it provides the bulk of Earth's oxygen production. Oxygen only exists because the ecosystem replenishes it. If all oxygen production stopped it would only take a few thousand years to deplete completely. Oxygen binds quickly with everything around it.
It's true, but Phytoplankton is not an animal.
How come you can still read that...? I deleted it. Because I too remembered phytoplankton is not in the animal kingdom, and haven't thought of a better answer yet.
I wonder if its a federation thing...
Real answer here
Bees and coral are both great answers, but I’m going to go with spiders. The amount of smaller pest insects that spiders consume is definitely overlooked and without them just imagine the swarms of bugs that would aggregate during the summer months
Humans going extinct would probably be the most beneficial.
For whom?
Bees
Humans going extinct would probably have an enormous impact.
Many species of flies are foundational in the food web.
flies are also great pollenators
Coral
See you in 10 years
Birds