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Food webs in some parts of the word have been altered (flipped) Stress have been put on the worlds ecosystems by humans when they fish, convert land into farms and cities, and increase the planet temperature Due to this, ecologist think that more food webs are going to flip in the years ahead Carpenter and his colleagues developed mathematical models that help them predict the changes in the future o People can begin to find the rules that determine the stability of a food web o Help identify ecosystems that are at risk of collapse Food webs are very complex and contains thousands of species, which made it turned into snarls o To understand snarls, scientists converted the food webs into mathematical models There are strong bonds within a food web, but there are more weak bonds in it Links become stronger when species interact more Small alternations can lead other larger effects Certain predators have massive impacts on food web o After the wolf population decreased, the elk and herbivore populations increased, which caused the amount of vegetation in that location to decrease When restoring an ecosystem to its original state is a difficult process o Initially scientist thought that It would take 5-6 years for the cod population to recover, but later on, they found out that their prediction was falsified Hunting, fishing, competition with other species, and climate changes are some factors that leads to alternations in food webs Scientist predicted that preventing food webs from switching is more effective than restoring ones that had been flipped Carpenter and his colleagues began to create equations that displays how ecosystems worked o The variables included reproduction rates, the rate of interaction with other species, and rate of death They hope to develop a monitoring system for multiple types of ecosystems and one that can foreshadow irregular changes within an ecosystem

Ecosystems are naturally fluctuated systems. Sometimes it may be beneficial to the organisms that inhabits it and other times it will cause harm to those organisms. As time pass, many food webs have been reversed and causing ecosystems to have break downs. Most of the times it is caused by humans activities such as fishing, converting lands into farms and cities and increasing the carbon levels in our environments. Food webs can show complex links between organisms within an ecosystem and it contains thousands of species; therefore they are sometimes converted into mathematical models to have a better understanding of it. The links within a food web can be strong, but most of the times, there will be more weak bonds in

a food web. Strong bonds occurs when species have more interaction with each other. Predators in food webs can cause massive impacts on it. Now humans are trying to develop a monitoring system for multiple types of ecosystems that can foreshadow changes within an ecosystem. I knew the importance of top predators in food webs and the effects after removing them from their natural environment, but I was unaware that many food webs have been altered by humans. Humans always seem to the cause of many environmental issues, but I did not know that humans even caused many food webs to be flipped. I do not think that is a good thing that many food webs have been flipped because that is not natural. I do know that the ecosystem naturally fluctuates, but I think this alternation is not beneficial to the ecosystem. I think to prevent more food webs from flipping, then humans should stop converting lands into corps and cities, and decrease the amount of carbon they are releasing into the atmosphere. I think that there is enough farms and cities and that there is not enough locations for animals to naturally survive because humans are taking it away from those animals.