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On my terraformed exoplanet, the largest habitable land masses are primarily covered with temperate rainforests (average temperatures from 8 to 18 C)

Assume for this question that the bottom of the trophic pyramid is sufficiently filled out, so don't worry about plants, bacteria, fungi, insects, etc. All life on this planet has been brought to the planet from Earth during the terraforming process. It had no native life of its own previously.

My question is, what are the minimal/critical animal species you would need to fill out the rest of the trophic pyramid in this biome? I'm assuming we'd need a variety of things like:

  • Herbivores of various types
  • mesopredators and insectivores
  • apex predators

You don't necessarily have to drill down all the way to the exact species in your answer. Family level is probably good enough (so you can just say "weasel" or "bear").

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  • $\begingroup$ Is this borrowing from our biosphere on Earth, or is this a speculative-biology question? $\endgroup$
    – nearsighted
    Commented Apr 2, 2023 at 0:50
  • $\begingroup$ Borrowing from our biosphere. I'll clarify that in an edit, sorry. $\endgroup$
    – DMacc1917
    Commented Apr 2, 2023 at 2:52
  • $\begingroup$ If humanity in this world has gotten to a level of scientific advancement sufficient to terraform an entire planet, it would almost certainly have the ability to modify the DNA of animals we have on Earth to create new species suited to this new planet ─ so it's unlikely that we'd only populate it with earthly creatures. $\endgroup$
    – nearsighted
    Commented Apr 2, 2023 at 13:29
  • $\begingroup$ Sure, but they'd probably still be broadly recognizable as members of the same family unless we have the ability to synthesize entirely original lifeforms. Like, it would be trivial to modify a brown bear into a new species of bear tailored for this planet, but you'd have to edit a whole lot of the DNA sequence to turn a bear into a crab. $\endgroup$
    – DMacc1917
    Commented Apr 2, 2023 at 16:49
  • $\begingroup$ I'm not sure I agree with the frame of your question - usually the issue with species introduction is unintended interactions with other existing species. But since we are essentially starting from scratch - there's no reason why you would have this concern. You could introduce whatever you like and let nature takes it's course. $\endgroup$
    – TheDemonLord
    Commented Apr 2, 2023 at 21:25

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Foxes, Rabbits, and Grass

This is a classic simulation to introduce people to the idea of population modeling using the most paired-down elements. There is an important balance between these groups: outside of certain bounds, even this simple system can collapse!

This means, in the minium viable ecosystem, your primary consumers (your cows, insects, rabbits, etc.) need enough predators to keep them in check but few enough to not exterminate them. These predators need not be apex predators on earth. They must simply mitigate the primary consumers from eating everything.

Some Suggestions for a Minimum

Taking a hint from the modelling, we just need predators for our primary cosumers. We have a temperate rainforest with insects already, so we need insectivores to match them. Some (mostly) generalist insectivore groups:

  • Frogs
  • Dragonflies
  • Fish (which eat larva)
  • Spiders

This would be a minimum! This assumes insects take care of the pollination and/or eat the plants you introduced. If not, those primary consumers need their main predators. (Like deer and wolves!)

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