Re:Garfield phones beach mystery finally solved
by tengbretson on Thursday March 28, 2019 @03:45PM
(#19515832)
> If one beach...
The very existence of beaches at all is the result of the overwhelming dead remains of billions of diatoms and crushed shells. I have no doubt there would be a totally different ecosystem if it weren't for their remains.
Re:Garfield phones beach mystery finally solved
by andrewflnr on Thursday March 28, 2019 @09:57PM
(#19518502)
So if some organisms were naturally excreting a chemical toxic to most life on the planet, with no feedback mechanism to stop them, you'd be against that, right? Don't answer that, it's a trick question. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event
It's the same as when sea urchins devour whole kelp forests, rendering parts of the sea floor totally barren. One or two urchins aren't a big deal but when they breed without limits they can completely destroy an ocean ecosystem. And so we kill them off when we need to to try to be good stewards of our planet.