Local Trophic Watch

Local Trophic Watch is a web and mobile app that helps communities, NGOs, and local governments monitor ecological balance at the regional level by focusing on food webs and keystone species. Users can view simplified trophic maps of their watershed, coastline, or forest and see how land-use changes, pollution, and climate anomalies are likely to impact predator–prey relationships and ecosystem stability. The app aggregates open ecological datasets, citizen science observations, and remote sensing layers (e.g., vegetation indices, water quality proxies) to generate an ‘ecosystem stress score’ for each area. It does not pretend to be perfectly precise: it surfaces uncertainty and data gaps explicitly, so users know when they are flying blind. Scenario tools let planners test what happens to ecosystem balance if, for example, a wetland is drained or a fishing quota is increased. This is not a feel-good sustainability dashboard; it is a blunt, occasionally uncomfortable decision-support tool that shows when local policies are quietly pushing ecosystems toward tipping points.