Have you ever taken the time to observe Southern California wildlife? We have beautiful creeks and vibrant rivers with plenty of life. Our ecosystems are wide in diversity, containing many species of plants and animals. Keystone species, though, are species that help maintain balance and health in our habitats.
Ms Pham, the AP Environmental Science teacher, educates our students about keystone species’ importance through her class. “A Keystone species keeps the ecosystem running. If you lose your keystone species, you’re quite literally almost losing the core. So if you lose the core, then a lot of things are going to suffer,” Pham said. “They might not be the most eye-catching species; sometimes a keystone species is pretty low-key. So just because you think, oh, it’s a tiny little thing, I don’t have to worry about it. It’s not always true.”
Even though keystone species are important, many are endangered. Anthropogenic activities like deforestation and poaching take away the majority of our keystone species. However, the Convention on Biological Diversity is a global agreement that focuses on protecting these endangered species. One example of an endangered keystone species is the jaguar. The jaguar is an animal that hunts capybaras, deer, and peccaries. Its importance is keeping those species from overpopulating and overgrazing the vegetation. Sadly, 95% of their original habitat in Argentina has been lost, and over 40% of their habitat has been lost in Panama.
In Duarte, one of our most crucial keystone species is the coastal live oak. Coastal live oak trees have been around for thousands of years, and grow on the west coast of California, ranging from Mendocino County south to Baja California in Mexico. They usually live from 150 to 250 years, with some individuals living for many centuries. These oak trees were significant to the first inhabitants of our land, the Tongva people, and are verified as members of the 60-million-year-old genus Quercus. For thousands of years, indigenous tribes have tended oak trees through controlled burning. They provide nutrients and moisture to the microbial life around them, along with spaces for animals like squirrels. Coastal oak trees aren’t endangered yet, but the more we raise awareness about keystone species, the more we can work to protect them. Keystone species are in danger now more than ever before, and it’s up to us to preserve what’s left of our ecosystems.
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