Bhavin. T

As much as I like to acknowledge our existence on this planet as being parasitic of sort, I believe that we are not a keystone species. Namely, our biomass is extremely small to even compete as a contender for the award for a keystone species. Plants and other organisms of great value are looked down upon for their role in the environment. Without these organisms, we would not have food to eat, textiles, fuel, and the list goes on and on. So would that make a specific sort of plant a keystone species? Also, we tend to the forget the microbial world when we taken into account the influence of life in the ecosystem. Without, certain types of bacteria (cyanobacteria and alpha-proteobacteria) we would not mitochondria and plants and algae would not have chloroplasts. So does that make bacteria a keystone species? Going back to the original question, I feel that humans are not keystone species. Granted that we have a upper hand in the ecosystem. However we do not control life. For me, that defines a keystone species.