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The topic is the invasive species “Kudzu” My practice for us to review is in the pic, answer these in a short summary

The topic is the invasive species “Kudzu” My practice for us to review is in the pic-example-1
User Pedrofalcaocosta
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Kudzu is an invasive species brought from regional areas around the Pacific. It was brought over as decoration and farming purposes, unknown to the farmers that it was an invasive species. Kudzu is a type of vine that grows over plants and trees and occupies a large area.

Kudzu is known as an invasive species because it grows over primary producers, aka trees, grass, and plants. When Kudzu grows, it envelops the primary producer underneath it, causing it to have limited access to sunlight, a vital energy source for primary producers. Without the sun, these primary prouccers like plants and grass cannot produce the food necessary to support an ecosystem.

We can recall that primary producers are the most abundant species in an ecosystem. They are also a keystone species - if primary producers are removed, the entire ecosystem will be disrupted, as there is no food source for primary consumers. This in turn creates a shortage of food for secondary consumers, etc.

Relating this back to Kudzu, this vine species kills and displaces the primary producers in any ecosystem, causing the primary producers to limited in numbers. Animals such as deer (primary consumers) who rely on primary producers such as grass as their main food source will not have enough energy to survive (food-energy transfer). This, in turn, will affect secondary consumers such as coyotes who prey on deer as their food source. The tertiary consumer, in our example we can use wolves, who hunt on coyotes as a food source, will also struggle to find a sustainable food source, since the number of coyotes is smaller.

Therefore, Kudzu, an invasive species, creates a chain effect (or snowball effect) that causes devastating consequences to an ecosystem.

User Bozzle
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