A World Without Chinese Giant Salamanders

 

Every species plays an important role in an ecosystem. Whether it is a producer, a consumer, a predator, or an apex predator, a balance must be found in an ecosystem. The decline or incline of any species throws off this balance, and as a result, the entire ecosystem perishes. Ecosystems can adapt to change, but with the extreme speed of the change caused by humans, ecosystems, and species cannot keep up. With the Chinese Giant Salamander’s slow reproductive patterns, this species is not capable of regenerating its declining population. Their decline affects the species that they eat, which affects those species, and the species that eat them, etc. If this species goes extinct, the entire ecosystem could perish. 

 

Salamanders Supporting Sustainability!

 

The Chinese Giant Salamander does not get to its massive size of six feet through a light low-calorie vegetarian diet. These salamanders prefer to chow down on frogs, fish, snails, worms, crayfish, insects, crabs, and some smaller salamanders (San Diego Zoo Animals And Plants, 2019). When at healthy numbers, the Chinese Giant Salamander is a key factor in sustaining these species populations, preventing the overpopulation of these species as well as their other predators. Overpopulation of the frogs, fish, snails, worms, crayfish, insects, crabs, and some smaller salamanders results in less vegetation and bacteria eaten by these species that keep the water of these ecosystems for all of the other species that rely on freshwater. The overpopulation of the species that feed on the overpopulated small insects, amphibians, and crustaceans, results in extreme lack of these producers and consumers, which each also have small roles in sustaining the ecosystem. This is all a result of balanced species diversity. Keeping population abundance and numbers at normal rates allows the ecosystem to not be dominated by any particular species, keeping it balanced. As described by the Zoological Society of London, “China is a country experiencing a large economic boom and escalating levels of biodiversity loss, making conservation of the environment increasingly important, especially that of water resources and freshwater systems”, further adding to the importance the biodiversity maintained by this species(Chinese Giant Salamander Conservation, 2019).

The decline of the Chinese Giant Salamander has thrown off the entire balance of the peaceful ecosystems throughout China. This issue affects many more species than we know, increasing the relevance of their quick decline.