Section 2 of 4
Habitat that is built, not found
Structures made by their occupants.
Remove the canopy and the rock beneath has the same light and the same temperature it always had.
Photo: Seaweed in Ensenada Baja California · Wikimedia Commons
4 guides in this section
- Habitat that is built, not found
Kelp, coral and beaver each construct the physical structure other species live in, which makes them habitat rather than inhabitants.
- What an otter has to do with a forest
Remove the predator, the urchins increase, the kelp is grazed off and the forest becomes barren rock — a documented sequence, not a metaphor.
- Røst, and a reef with no light
Cold-water coral builds reef structure hundreds of metres down, with no algae and no sunlight involved.
- The dam as a landform
Beaver ponds change the water table, the sediment and the species list of a whole reach of stream.