The Menhaden of History

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 8 Comments on The Menhaden of History
Conservation, Science

ResearchBlogging.orgMenhaden were the most important fisheries throughout American history. When the first settlers learn to farm corn, it was with menhaden that they fertilized the seeds. When the whaling industry reached its height, it was outweighed by menhaden oil. Menhaden ruled the ocean from the middle of the food chain, they were the dominant prey of most large predatory fish. They swarmed the sea in schools several miles long and millions of fish deep. Their huge biomass supported by plankton, they regulated algal blooms, mediated the transfer of primary production up the food chain, filtered the ocean.

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Are humans a keystone species?

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab 12 Comments on Are humans a keystone species?
Conservation, Science

“Humans are just a fossil-fueled outbreak that will go away”, stated one of my professors yesterday.

In the world investigating the human dimensions of natural resource management there’s two schools of thought as to how humans fit in: a) as just another particularly troublesome species in the ecosystem or b) a special kind of species with the ability to predict and change the future.  This latter formulation hinges on humans as a species with “motivation” and “intent”, according to C.S. Holling.

Otherwise, however, humans should be able to fit into the ecological definitions and models we all learned in intro biology.  At an extreme case, it means we’re the next trilobite or dinosaur, living in our 15 minutes of fame now but soon to disappear.  In the process, we will pave the way for a new species to become dominant.

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