I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 624 - 522 Ecological Issues

In the field of ecosystem research, Chen Xin can't offer much help, as it is not his area of expertise.

However, when it comes to biological breeding, he is quite skilled.

Previously, when breeding large, cold-resistant wolf dogs, the entire project was personally overseen by Chen Xin, who was involved in the breeding process throughout, including the training and practical use of the creatures after they were bred. He can certainly be considered experienced.

Building an ecosystem, however, doesn't require large animals, or rather, the demand for large animals isn't as high.

In naturally formed ecosystems and food chains, large animals usually occupy the top of the food chain, serving as the final link in the closed loop of the entire ecosystem.

It is akin to the cycle where rabbits eat grass, wolves eat rabbits, wolves die and decompose into the ground, and grass grows again—this represents the ecological niche of wolves.

This niche is essential in natural cycles, because if rabbits have no predators, they will reproduce without restriction, eventually exceeding the limits the environment can sustain, leading to the collapse of the entire ecosystem.

Kangaroo Country once had a profound experience with this issue, and even prior to the disaster, they were still troubled by it.

Back then, Kangaroo Country indiscriminately slaughtered local native apex predators like thylacines, resulting in rabbits and kangaroos losing their natural enemies, allowing their numbers to proliferate, destroying grasslands, severely deteriorating the local ecosystem, and heavily impacting the country's livestock industry—kangaroos were rampant.

Kangaroo Country tried some efforts, such as banning the hunting of thylacines, offering rewards for culling rabbits and kangaroos, but ultimately these efforts yielded little success, necessitating the importation of wolves from abroad to curb rabbit reproduction.

The reason is simply that they killed off a species at the top of the ecological niche, causing the entire biological chain to lose balance.

However, in a small ecological environment like the Dome City, the presence of such large predatory animals would be unnecessary.

This is easy to understand as such small ecological environments have limited carrying capacity and cannot sustain the survival needs of large predatory animals.

This is akin to the old saying that "a mountain cannot hold two tigers"; wild large predators will have their own territory and expel other large predators from it to ensure that they can obtain enough food.

In a small ecological environment like the Dome City, however, it is more suitable to carry some herbivorous or omnivorous small animals, whereas large predators like wolves and tigers are indeed unnecessary and could possibly threaten the safety of the city's residents.

As for medium-sized predatory animals like cats and dogs, they are also unsuitable for the Dome City, primarily due to reproduction issues.

Anyone with a basic understanding of ecosystems would know that, in ecological niches, the higher up in the food chain a species is, the fewer its numbers and the harder it is to reproduce.

Top predators such as tigers and lions typically reproduce three to four cubs at most, usually only one or two, and they only breed once a year, making it hard for the population size to increase.

Medium-sized predators like cats and dogs have relatively stronger reproductive capabilities, commonly reproducing three or four offspring at a time.

For even smaller animals, their reproduction numbers are even greater; for instance, a mouse can have more than ten offspring at a time, which is considered low in productivity among small creatures.

The smaller the size, the more reliant they are on numbers to ensure the continuation of the species.

This is not some restriction in a fictional world but rather an inevitability in biological evolution and ecological development.

The key point is that to maintain the self-sufficiency, operation, and balance of the ecosystem in the Dome City, we need more of those tiny creatures like earthworms that we usually can't see, rather than large animals like cats and dogs.

"Then what if we want to keep cats and dogs?" During lunch, while listening to Chen Xin talk about these issues, Mo Qingyan asked Chen Xin with great interest.

She had always wanted to keep a cat, a cute little cat, which was completely different from Qin Lan's desire to raise a dog and train it to become a police dog.

"That depends on how you plan to keep them. If it's just as pets at home, then it's not much of an issue. Just ensure that cats and dogs have enough food, spay or neuter them, and don't let them roam around. It's pretty much like keeping pets before, and won't cause much of a burden on the ecosystem," Chen Xin genuinely considered this issue, understanding that many people would want to keep cats and dogs, animals that are among the closest to humans.

During a disaster, ensuring human survival is already difficult enough, and pets like cats and dogs aren't considered. So, besides private shelters where some pets or animals might be kept, official shelters didn't allow any pets inside.

Now that the situation is improving and resource supply has stabilized, there certainly would still be individuals, such as Mo Qingyan, who wish to keep pets for companionship.

In Chen Xin's view, this isn't a big deal. Although some might say that when people can't get enough to eat, there's no reason to feed pets, Chen Xin believes that as long as people who wish to keep pets are willing to work harder and their rewards can cover the consumption of raising a pet, it's not something infeasible.

However, after hearing his answer, Mo Qingyan had more thoughts and asked him, "What if the pet runs out and becomes a stray cat or dog? What then?"

"In such a case, we can only hunt them," Chen Xin's words carried a tinge of cruelty but were patiently explained: "Stray cats and dogs severely damage the ecosystem; dogs are slightly better without particularly strong hunting urges.

Cats, however, inherently possess intense hunting instincts and are one of the few animals that would hunt for fun. Even a spayed cat that cannot reproduce would greatly threaten the local ecology.

Thus, if stray cats and dogs appear in the wild areas of the Dome City, they must be hunted, as the ecology of the Dome City is far more fragile than the natural ecological environments in ordinary city settings, and any damage could lead to the collapse of the entire ecological environment."

"Hmm, I understand. Stray cats and dogs are indeed a major problem," Mo Qingyan, regarding Chen Xin's stance on this issue, displayed an understanding attitude, though her emotions appeared somewhat downcast.