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Pisaster ochraceus
When ochre sea stars were removed from a patch of rocky shore at Washington’s Mukkaw Bay, California mussels spread over the rock. In the experimental patch, the number of species living on that rock fell. By eating mussels, the sea star keeps space open for other species on the shore.
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African forest elephant
Some trees in the Congo Basin get their seeds scattered by an elephant. Forest elephants swallow fruit and leave intact seeds in their dung. In the Ndoki Forest, researchers matched seeds in dung with elephant movements to see how far that delivery service can reach. A tree with few other dispersers can lose a way to reach new ground when the elephants disappear.
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North American beaver
A beaver dam makes room for other species. In Oregon’s Bridge Creek, researchers installed posts to help beavers anchor dams. As dams and pools multiplied, juvenile steelhead survived better than they did in the comparison watershed. Here the effect comes from reshaping the stream itself.
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Sea otter
In the western Aleutians, rocky coasts with sea otters supported more kelp than coasts without them. Otters eat sea urchins, which graze kelp. The relationship can run at different speeds in different places. Long records from Vancouver Island and southern California show why two kelp forests can respond differently when otters return.
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Gopher tortoise
The long tunnel of a gopher tortoise can provide refuge from heat, fire, and predators. Florida mice dig little side tunnels off the main passage, and eastern indigo snakes can shelter in the burrow. One animal’s excavation creates habitat for others, including insects closely tied to the burrow itself.
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Green humphead parrotfish
A bumphead parrotfish helps turn pieces of a reef into sand. This large Indo-Pacific fish breaks up reef carbonate as it feeds, taking bites of live coral as well. It shows how a fish can change the structure of a reef by excavating material from the surface.
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Black-tailed prairie dog
For a black-footed ferret, a prairie dog colony provides both hunting grounds and shelter. The ferret eats prairie dogs and uses their burrow system. In the shortgrass plains, black-tailed prairie dog colonies can have particularly dense burrow networks, so losing a colony takes away a food source and a place to live together.
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Pink salmon
A spawned-out pink salmon can feed other fish long after the run passes. In experimental stream channels in southeast Alaska, adding pink salmon carcasses increased the growth of young coho salmon. The returning adults bring nutrients acquired at sea into streams, where they become available to the next fish using that habitat.
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Southern cassowary
The large fruits of a rare Daintree rainforest tree, Ryparosa kurrangii, suit an animal that can swallow them whole. In a germination trial, seeds that passed through a southern cassowary sprouted far more often than untreated seeds. The bird can change both where a seed lands and its chance of growing.
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Cornitermes cumulans
The mounds of this termite in Brazil’s Cerrado can shelter other termites and ants. A field survey found at least 17 termite species and 10 ant species nesting across the different mounds. Look at the mounds as a set of buildings, each able to house more than the colony that made it.
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American alligator
When shallow water retreats in the Everglades, a hole dug by an alligator can hold water after the marsh around it dries. Fish can shelter there, and wading birds can feed there. Some of the fish that survive in these pockets help replenish populations after the water returns.
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Wolf
A wolf’s effects can travel from elk to the plants elk browse. A long-running Yellowstone experiment shows the importance of what else is happening at the same time. Cutting back browsing alone failed to restore willows along small streams where water tables stayed low. In those places, how much water the ground holds helps determine what a change in browsing can do.
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Saguaro
A saguaro has a second life as a place to nest. Gila woodpeckers hollow out cavities in the cactus, and other birds can use those cavities later. Add flowers that offer nectar and fruit that ripens in early summer, and this Sonoran Desert cactus supports very different needs as the year goes on.
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