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Status and Ecological Effects of the World’s Largest Carnivores
August 29, 2021
Large carnivores face serious threats and are experiencing massive declines in their populations and geographic ranges around the world. We highlight how these threats have affected the conservation status and ecological functioning of the 31 largest mammalian carnivores on Earth. … read more
Posted in Trophic Cascade
Outsized effect of predation: Wolves alter wetland creation and recolonization by killing ecosystem engineers
November 30, 2020
Gray wolves are a premier example of how predators can transform ecosystems through trophic cascades. However, whether wolves change ecosystems as drastically as previously suggested has been increasingly questioned. We demonstrate how wolves alter wetland creation and recolonization by killing … read more
Posted in Trophic Cascade
Population responses of common ravens to reintroduced gray wolves
November 30, 2020
Top predators have cascading effects throughout the food web, but their impacts on scavenger abundance are largely unknown. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) provide carrion to a suite of scavenger species, including the common raven (Corvus corax). Ravens are wide‐ranging and … read more
Posted in Trophic Cascade | Tagged Canis lupus, common raven, Corvus corax, gray wolf, scavenger, Yellowstone National Park
Wolves, Moose, and Tree Rings on Isle Royale
October 27, 2020
Investigation of tree growth in Isle Royale National Park in Michigan revealed the influence of herbivores and carnivores on plants in an intimately linked food chain. Plant growth rates were regulated by cycles in animal density and responded to annual … read more
Posted in Trophic Cascade
Wolves, trophic cascades, and rivers in the Olympic National Park, USA
October 27, 2020
Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were extirpated in the early 1900s from the Olympic Peninsula of northwestern Washington. Thus, we studied potential cascading effects of wolf removal by undertaking a retrospective study of Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus) populations, riparian forests, and … read more
Posted in Trophic Cascade | Tagged channel morphology, elk, riparian plant communities, trophic cascades, wolves
Tall willow thickets return to northern Yellowstone
May 31, 2020
Northern Yellowstone National Park provides an example of passive restoration, as wetlands and riparian areas there lost most tall willows in the 20th century, due to intensive herbivory by elk (Cervus canadensis). Following large carnivore restoration in the late 1990s, … read more
Posted in Trophic Cascade | Tagged bison, browsing, Cervus canadensis, passive restoration, Salix, sandbar willow, tall willows, trophic cascade, ungulate herbivory, yellowstone
