Resources ≀ Trophic Cascade

After taking office, President Biden signed an executive order announcing his America the Beautiful plan to conserve 30% of US land and water by 2030. He challenged Americans to collaboratively “conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife upon … read more

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

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

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

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

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