Species Loss Tied To Ecosystem Collapse And Recovery

The world’s oceans are under siege. Conservation biologists regularly note the precipitous decline of key species, such as cod, bluefin tuna, swordfish and sharks. Lose enough of these top-line predators (among other species), and the fear is that the oceanic web of life may collapse. In a new study, researchers find that it took up to 10 million years after the mass extinctions for enough variety of species to repopulate the ocean--restoring ecological redundancy--for the ecosystem to stabilize.