CTS 10-12: Environmental Stewardship: Species

Meet the animal influencers that play an oversize — and often surprising — role in shaping our world.

As a keystone species, blue wildebeests are essential in keeping this African prairie a carbon sink and their recent recovery is one of the greatest success stories in conservation. Learn more in this article and in its companion video.

When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, the most remarkable trophic cascade occurred.

Keystone plant genera are unique to local food webs within ecoregions. Remove keystone plants and diversity will be diminished.

A keystone species helps define an entire ecosystem. Without its keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. Learn who some of the keystone species are.

What do gray wolves, elephants, and parrotfish have in common? They're all keystone species. Learn how these animals keep their ecosystems running.

What happens when two apex predators meet? Find out in this video

An umbrella species is a species whose wellbeing and population numbers are suggestive of the entire ecosystem’s health.

The Umbrella species concept is a brilliant conservation strategy to use a single species to protect an entire ecosystem, but how effective is it?