Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 333, Issue 6040, Pages 301-306Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1205106
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Funding
- Institute for Ocean Conservation Science
- Defenders of Wildlife
- White Oak Plantation
- NSF
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Nordforsk
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0949415] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Directorate For Geosciences [1115057] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Environmental Biology [0949415] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0949531] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Until recently, large apex consumers were ubiquitous across the globe and had been for millions of years. The loss of these animals may be humankind's most pervasive influence on nature. Although such losses are widely viewed as an ethical and aesthetic problem, recent research reveals extensive cascading effects of their disappearance in marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems worldwide. This empirical work supports long-standing theory about the role of top-down forcing in ecosystems but also highlights the unanticipated impacts of trophic cascades on processes as diverse as the dynamics of disease, wildfire, carbon sequestration, invasive species, and biogeochemical cycles. These findings emphasize the urgent need for interdisciplinary research to forecast the effects of trophic downgrading on process, function, and resilience in global ecosystems.
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