Summary
No larger than a minnow, the three-spine stickleback would possibly possibly presumably possibly simply seem a tiny participant within the underwater world. But alongside the European coastline of the Baltic Sea, it has edged out its have predators—toothy pike and perch, species larger than your forearm. Data courting back 40 years expose how the flamboyant tiny fish has shifted the ecosystem, thwarting efforts to revive the larger species hottest by human fishers. In the 1990s, sticklebacks began to outnumber their predators ever nearer to land, their dominance spreading toward extra protected bays and inland waters. Ecologists content what has came about within the Baltic is a dramatic instance of a predator-prey reversal, whereby two species commerce areas on the food chain, drastically altering the leisure of the ecosystem.
