importance of tiny ecosystems (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, April 21, 2022, 15:20 (737 days ago) @ David Turell

What happens in sloth fur relates to their poop placement:

https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-furry-ecosystem-of-algae-moths-and-sl...

"It turns out that the humble sloth is at the center of a fascinating three-way mutualism, one that connects with a puzzling aspect of their behavior — they spend almost their entire lives in trees, but venture down to the ground to poop.

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"Sloths move so slowly that tons of organisms, including beetles, cockroaches, fungi and algae live on them. One species of green algae in particular lives nowhere else on earth except in the fuzzy comfort of sloth fur. These algae provide a portable food source for sloths, who happily dine on their microscopic stowaways. But while the sloths provide a hirsute home, the algae also need nutrients in order to survive. That’s where another resident of Slothtown swoops in: moths.

"Specifically, we’re talking about pyralid moths in the genus Cryptoses. These are “largely flightless moths that live in the fur of both two-toed and three-toed sloths,” says Jonathan Pauli, an associate professor of wildlife ecology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The moths will lay their eggs in sloth dung, and the moth larvae … are coprophagous, they eat sloth poo.”

"Once the larvae mature, they fly up to the forest canopy to colonize a sloth, and the cycle continues. Sloths pooping on the ground allows the moths in their fur to get close to the feces, which is vital to continue their lifecycle. Given that the moths spend their entire adult lives in sloth fur and aren't strong fliers, it would be difficult for a moth to successfully locate and lay eggs in sloth poop if it was falling from trees to the ground far below. But why would sloths help out the moths like this? Just because their names rhyme? Surely there’s more to it.

“'The moth lifecycle is really dependent on the sloth for survival,” says Pauli. “The moths ultimately die within the fur of these sloths.” Once the moths die, a “host of decomposers that occur within sloth fur” break down their bodies. In a sense, this creates sloth fertilizer, Pauli says with a laugh.

"Studies have shown that the more moths living in sloth fur, the more nutrients — or “fertilizer” — that can be found there as well, which leads to more tasty algae. “There appears to be this three-way mutualism between moths, algae and the sloth,” Pauli says. Risking being eaten by predators in order to facilitate this multi-partner relationship may just be worth it for the sloths."

Comment: A fascinating relationship between three very different players. But note everyone gets to eat. Still why sloths must poop on ground is strange. It could be 'bombs away' just as easily. They are programmed to descend. Now I wonder if God intervened. After all the ground is not sloth safe! No survival advantage there.