1. Watch the How Wolves Change Rivers:
2. After watching the video, create your discussion post for the week by answering all of the questions below:
- This video highlighted several bottlenecks in Yellowstone. What were 2 of them, and what were the impacts of each? (Please respond w/ 2-4 sentences total.)
- If you were a LSS Green Belt working on solving the “health” issues of this national park, what data would you be seeking to understand the problem(s)? “Health” of the park includes anything in the environment, including animals, plant life, ecosystems, etc. (Please respond with 2-4 sentences)
- How would you know what the biggest constraint was with your data? (Please respond with 2-4 sentences)
- Once you have validated your data, how would you propose “testing” a countermeasure to eliminate or improve the constraint? (Please respond with 2-4 sentences)
3. After your initial post, respond to at least 2 other students’ posts. Remember that a contribution beyond just, “Looks good,” or “I think we’ve covered it” is required to create a more engaging classroom. Each response to another student must be at least 4 sentences long. Consider building upon their ideas, respectfully challenging their thinking, asking questions, sharing what you thought about, etc.
Student A’s post:
“This video highlighted several bottlenecks in Yellowstone. What were 2 of them, and what were the impacts of each? (Please respond w/ 2-4 sentences total.)
After watching the video, I highlighted the following bottlenecks:
- To many dears that significantly reduced the vegetation in the park.
- The river was impacted by soil erosion and soil collapse from the riverbank.
How would you know what the biggest constraint was with your data? (Please respond with 2-4 sentences)
The main constrain in Yellowstone Park was the absence of predators that could hunt deers down. I will know about it through observation and root cause analysis of changes that were taken place in the park. For instance, it might be a growing population of coyotes and a significant reduction of rabbits, mice, and other animals. Besides, a critical change in the river pattern will also represent the data we need for removing barriers to the restoration of that place.
Once you have validated your data, how would you propose “testing” a countermeasure to eliminate or improve the constraint? (Please respond with 2-4 sentences)
In this situation I would implement the following countermeasures:
- Regular count of reducing and growing species to make sure there is no harmful effect on existing animals.
- Observation and gathering data on whether wolves became a threat to pets or not.
- Observation and gathering data on whether wolves and bears became a threat to people or not.
- Observation and gathering data on whether wolves and bears became a threat to livestock or not.”
Student B’s post:
“1). This video highlighted several bottlenecks in Yellowstone. What were 2 of them, and what were the impacts of each? (Please respond w/ 2-4 sentences total.)
The significant bottlenecks highlighted in the Yellowstone video include the introduction of the wolves along with the bears. The wolves remained responsible for creating a balance in the ecosystem through their predation attributes. For instance, the wolves managed to kill the high populations of the deer, causing an increased number of beavers that created niches from other species. Relatively, the wolves managed to kill Coyotes, causing an increased number of mice, rabbits, mites, and bears. Relatively the wolves managed to change the behavior of the rivers in terms of stabilizing their banks and equally enabling vegetative recovery in other parts of the park, thus transforming both the physical geography and ecosystem. The bears relatively reinforced the role of the wolves by killing the calves of the deer, thus leading to a balanced ecosystem.
2). If you were a LSS Green Belt working on solving the “health” issues of this national park, what data would you be seeking to understand the problem(s)? “Health” of the park includes anything in the environment, including animals, plant life, ecosystems, etc. (Please respond with 2-4 sentences)
The primary data types would include those illustrating soil erosion, data on the rate of damage to the ecosystem, the rate of damage to vegetation, the rate of disturbance of wildlife, the occurrence of water pollution, the rate of noise pollution, and even fire frequency. Other forms of data may include the predator-prey relationship, direct effects, for instance, climate change, the occurrence of heatwaves, the productivity status of the animals, and the general role of keystone species in influencing the health of a given ecosystem.
3). How would you know what the biggest constraint was with your data? (Please respond with 2-4 sentences)
The constraints would be identified through the set of possible responses, confirming the occurrence of double entries, setting response lengths, referring to earlier numeric values, offering values of earlier dates, and giving reference to statistical importance on the animal and plant data. The other strategies would evaluate scope, costs, quality, risks, resources, and relevant time likely to affect the data collection process.
4). Once you have validated your data, how would you propose “testing” a countermeasure to eliminate or improve the constraint? (Please respond with 2-4 sentences)
Upon validation of data, the central proposal for a countermeasure to reduce constraints would include planning along with strategizing all phases of a given project, developing a quality management program, offering a balance in the resource utilization, developing a risk management strategy, offering a transparent communication framework among all the project team members.”