The red lionfish, Pterois volitans, has beautiful red stripes, streaming fins, and a fearless disposition, and it is deadly. Native to the Pacific Ocean, the red lionfish was first discovered on coral reefs in the Bahamas in 1985. The species has spread to over 3 million square kilometers of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Lionfish have a voracious appetite for native fish, are armed with venomous spines, and have no natural predators in their new range.
Volunteer conservation organizations have hosted 'lionfish derbies' and lionfish cookouts to promote the capture of thousands of lionfish from reefs in Florida and the Bahamas. Conservationists are also trying to promote a fishery for these small but tasty fish. Give one reason that it would be easy to promote the consumption of lionfish. Describe one possible challenge to this effort.

Question

The red lionfish, Pterois volitans, has beautiful red stripes, streaming fins, and a fearless disposition, and it is deadly. Native to the Pacific Ocean, the red lionfish was first discovered on coral reefs in the Bahamas in 1985. The species has spread to over 3 million square kilometers of the western Atlantic and Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico). Lionfish have a voracious appetite for native fish, are armed with venomous spines, and have no natural predators in their new range.

DNA studies suggest that the lionfish invasion began with just a few females released off the coast of Florida, probably from a fish tank. Based on your knowledge of ocean currents, predict the direction in which the lionfish dispersed most quickly.

Volunteer conservation organizations have hosted 'lionfish derbies' and lionfish cookouts to promote the capture of thousands of lionfish from reefs in Florida and the Bahamas. Conservationists are also trying to promote a fishery for these small but tasty fish. Give one reason that it would be easy to promote the consumption of lionfish. Describe one possible challenge to this effort.

Accepted Answer

Hi everyone, let's look at our next problem. It says the basic level of ecology is individual. Whereas the basic unit of ecology is blank. When we talk about what ecology is ecology is the study of the interactions between individuals and their environment, including living organisms, which would say are the biotic elements and the non living elements or a biotic. So at this lowest level, as it indicates, you can look at the individual, how the individual interacts with the environment around it. We're talking about the unit of ecology, um what we'd be studying the lowest level. When we look at our answer choices, we have biosphere species, ecosystem, and bio. Um when we look at the lowest level, we'd be looking at either species or ecosystem, we can eliminate biosphere choice A because biosphere would be like the entire uh strata of the earth's surface that supports living creatures. So that's kind of the largest level, at least for now, until we find aliens that we can study. So the entire Earth and it's living things and a biodome um is different from an ecosystem because bio refers to like an entire classification of type of ecosystem. So something like grasslands or tundra or coniferous forest. So it can be a multiple different places um as a type of ecosystem. So bio miz larger than ecosystem, it's a choice d bio miz not our answer. So we're down to species and ecosystem. Well, a species is just looking at a particular type of living organism. Whereas an ecology looking at the interaction between the organism and its surroundings, including the a biotic non living elements. So we're not going to have a species as a unit of ecology, though you might look at how a species interacts with the environment around it. What we want to look at is choice C ecosystem. Because an ecosystem is a specific unit, the interactions between living and non living things in a specific context. So an ecosystem is smaller than a biodome because it deals with just the things that are interacting within that geographical area. Um Whereas in a bio the things aren't necessary interacting with each other. It refers more to a type of ecosystem. So the basic level of ecology is individual, whereas the basic unit of ecology is choice sea ecosystem. See you in the next video.

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Key Concepts

Invasive Species

Ecological Impact

Conservation Efforts