Question

What is a keystone species?

• A. a species which makes up only a small proportion of the total biomass of a community, yet has a huge impact on the community's organization and survival
• B. a common species that has plenty of biomass, yet has a fairly low impact on the community's organization
• C. a rare species that has minimal impact on the biomass and on other species in the community
• D. a dominant species that constitutes a large proportion of the biomass and which affects many other species.

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

Keystone species are those species which has significant and disproportionately large influence on the community structure and characteristics. It has often considerably low abundance and biomass as compared to dominant species. Removal of such species causes serious disruption in structure and function of community.