Posts Tagged: trophic

Large carnivores were persecuted in Yellowstone National Park, WY, USA, during the late 1800s and early 1900s, leading to extirpation of grey wolves (Canis lupus) and cougars (Puma concolor). Soon thereafter increased herbivory of riparian plant communities by Rocky Mountain … read more

The traditional trophic cascades model is based on consumer–resource interactions at each link in a food chain. However, trophic-level interactions, such as mesocarnivore release resulting from intraguild predation, may also be important mediators of cascades. From September 2001 to August … read more

The fear large carnivores inspire, independent of their direct killing of prey, may itself cause cascading effects down food webs potentially critical for conserving ecosystem function, particularly by affecting large herbivores and mesocarnivores. However, the evidence of this has been … read more

Historically, humans have modified many boreal and temperate ecosystems by decimating native animal populations and often substituting domesticated stock, thereby influencing food webs and simplifying interactions among species. Large predators, especially, have been subject to worldwide persecution. The profound ecological … read more

We tested the hypothesis that wolves are reducing local browse intensity by white-tailed deer, thus indirectly mitigating the biotic impoverishment of understorey plant communities in northern Wisconsin. To assess the potential for such a top-down trophic cascade response, we developed … read more