1.), missing links
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Answer:
C: autocrine
Explanation:
There are three types of hormones according to where their target cells are.
- Endocrine: Their target cells are distributed far and they travel via blood to reach the target cells.
- Paracrine: Their target cells are often their neighbors so they often diffuse to reach them
- Autocrine: Their secretion acts on themselves. Hence they are their own targets.
The species was a keystone species.
Keystone species are the species that ''hold the ecosystem together''.
They have an important role in the trophic networks (food chains) and often they can even afflict changes in the abiotic part of the ecosystem (change the composition of soil, purify the water, lower the effect of the wind etc)
Therefore, when a keystone species is removed it affects greatly the whole ecosystem.