But the search engine (or rather the algorithm) can also be used to map out the extinction of animal species and ecosystems. Scientists have known for a long time that the extinction of an animal species can lead to the dissolution of an entire ecosystem. Because of the complexity of the relations between different animal and plant species, however, it has been difficult to find out which animal species is the determining factor in this. Now an amazingly accurate model has been developed to predict this, based on the search engine technology of Google, PageRank.
With PageRank, a website becomes more important if other websites provide a link to it. Researchers of the University of California reversed this concept: Animal species are important when they support other species. Thus, grass is important as food for gazelles, which in turn are important prey for the lions. Lions are not eaten, but their manure and their decease is.
The model has been tested against other models and with twelve ecosystems that were investigated it appeared to perform better.
The research was published in the scientific journal PLoS Computational Biology.
Google and animals
24februari2010
Obviously Google’s search engines can be used to look up information on animals. In which zoos can I find tuataras, how heavy does an elephant get, and where can I find crickets for my bearded dragons?
