Saguaro Hypothesis

2a. If 80-85% of the sunlight were blocked from Earth, crop production would go down. Sunlight sustains all plants, and many would die from the lack thereof. For an earthworm, this means that the soil would lose its nutrients. Although after the plants died they would provide an immediate food source, this food source would eventually disappear, causing the earth worms to die off. The shark population would react in the same way. The immediate lack of sunlight would cause many fish to die, however after this source disappeared, the sharks would have little to feed on. The maple tree would slowly die because its source of sunlight was cut off. A saguaro cactus would be able to survive quite a while. Although it is used to a large amount of sunlight, and losing that sunlight would be a change, the cactus could survive off of its stored amount of water. However after this supply ran out, the cactus would die. A teenager would be affected by the sunlight in his/her mood. As the sky darkens, so would the outlook they had on everything

When the sunlight was blocked from the Earth, the producers would die. The sun is their source of food and it sustains them. This would lead to a collapse in the consumers, because their source of sustainment then is gone. Both of these deaths would result in a large amount of food for the decomposers. Eventually, after all the producers and consumers are gone, the decomposers would die off. As each level of the food chain died off, the cycling of matter would cease as well. Resulting from the deaths of first the producers, then the consumers, and finally the decomposers, all the life on the planet would no longer exist. This would stop the flow of matter all over the world.

2c. Competition between the sprouts would arise as they grew more. In addition, the amount of resources needed to sustain each tree would decrease, causing fewer and fewer to be able to survive. This would minimize the amount down to 1-2 trees that