Rivet Popper Hypothesis

Paul Ehrlich’s Rivet Popper Hypothesis is a metaphor used to explain the dangers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse.

Imagine an airplane flying through the sky. The plane is held together by thousands of rivets. Each rivet represents a species in an ecosystem.

Removing a few rivets (species) might not immediately affect the plane’s flight.
But if too many rivets are removed, especially from critical areas like the wings or tail, the plane will eventually fall apart.
Similarly, ecosystems can tolerate some species loss, but beyond a certain point, the system collapses — leading to extinction cascades and loss of ecosystem services.

Here.