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Science 6 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5514, pp. 63 - 64
DOI: 10.1126/science.1060793
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Perspectives

ECOLOGY:
Keystone Species--Hunting the Snark?

William Bond

What happens if one entire species in an ecosystem is lost or a non-native invading species moves in? In his Perspective, Bond discusses a study that has examined over a 20-year period the impact on a desert ecosystem of losing its biggest seed-eating rodent, the kangaroo rat. As Bond explains, the loss of the kangaroo rat had far-reaching effects on the desert ecosystem until the arrival of a seed-eating pocket mouse that quickly colonized the study plots and filled the kangaroo rat's niche.

The author is in the Botany Department, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, South Africa. E-mail: bond{at}botzoo.uct.ac.za

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)