Mesopredator release hypothesis
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Biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is needed for ecosystem multifunctionality Open
Many experiments have shown that loss of biodiversity reduces the capacity of ecosystems to provide the multiple services on which humans depend. However, experiments necessarily simplify the complexity of natural ecosystems and will norma…
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Range contractions of the world's large carnivores Open
The majority of the world's terrestrial large carnivores have undergone substantial range contractions and many of these species are currently threatened with extinction. However, there has been little effort to fully quantify the extent o…
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Paws without claws? Ecological effects of large carnivores in anthropogenic landscapes Open
Large carnivores are frequently presented as saviours of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning through their creation of trophic cascades, an idea largely based on studies coming primarily out of relatively natural landscapes. However, in…
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Spatio-temporal interactions facilitate large carnivore sympatry across a resource gradient Open
Species within a guild vary their use of time, space and resources, thereby enabling sympatry. As intra-guild competition intensifies, such behavioural adaptations may become prominent. We assessed mechanisms of facilitating sympatry among…
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Enemies with benefits: integrating positive and negative interactions among terrestrial carnivores Open
Interactions among terrestrial carnivores involve a complex interplay of competition, predation and facilitation via carrion provisioning, and these negative and positive pathways may be closely linked. Here, we developed an integrative fr…
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Stop Jumping the Gun: A Call for Evidence‐Based Invasive Predator Management Open
Invasive mammalian predators are major drivers of species extinctions globally. To protect native prey, lethal control is often used with the aim of reducing or exterminating invasive predator populations. The efficacy of this practice, ho…
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Top‐down control as important as nutrient enrichment for eutrophication effects in North Atlantic coastal ecosystems Open
Summary Seagrass and seaweed habitats constitute hotspots for diversity and ecosystem services in coastal ecosystems. These habitats are subject to anthropogenic pressures, of which eutrophication is one major stressor. Eutrophication favo…
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Spatial and temporal avoidance of risk within a large carnivore guild Open
Within a large carnivore guild, subordinate competitors (African wild dog, Lycaon pictus , and cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus ) might reduce the limiting effects of dominant competitors (lion, Panthera leo , and spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta )…
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Homage to Hersteinsson and Macdonald: climate warming and resource subsidies cause red fox range expansion and Arctic fox decline Open
Climate change can have a marked effect on the distribution and abundance of some\nspecies, as well as their interspecific interactions. In 1992, before ecological effects of\nanthropogenic climate change had developed into a topical resea…
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Prey availability and temporal partitioning modulate felid coexistence in Neotropical forests Open
Carnivores have long been used as model organisms to examine mechanisms that allow coexistence among ecologically similar species. Interactions between carnivores, including competition and predation, comprise important processes regulatin…
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Sudden collapse of a mesopredator reveals its complementary role in mediating rocky reef regime shifts Open
While changes in the abundance of keystone predators can have cascading effects resulting in regime shifts, the role of mesopredators in these processes remains underexplored. We conducted annual surveys of rocky reef communities that vari…
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Spatial Co-Occurrence and Activity Patterns of Mesocarnivores in the Temperate Forests of Southwest China Open
Understanding the interactions between species and their coexistence mechanisms will help explain biodiversity maintenance and enable managers to make sound conservation decisions. Mesocarnivores are abundant and diverse mid-sized carnivor…
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A cross-scale trophic cascade from large predatory fish to algae in coastal ecosystems Open
Trophic cascades occur in many ecosystems, but the factors regulating them are still elusive. We suggest that an overlooked factor is that trophic interactions (TIs) are often scale-dependent and possibly interact across spatial scales. To…
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Responses of invasive predators and native prey to a prescribed forest fire Open
Fire shapes biome distribution and community composition worldwide, and is extensively used as a management tool in flammable landscapes. There is growing concern, however, that fire could increase the vulnerability of native fauna to inva…
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A temporal shift in trophic diversity among a predator assemblage in a warming Arctic Open
Climate change is leading to northward shifts in species distributions that is altering interspecific interactions at low- and mid-trophic levels. However, little attention has been focused on the effects of redistributions of species on t…
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Ocean warming alters the distributional range, migratory timing, and spatial protections of an apex predator, the tiger shark (<i>Galeocerdo cuvier</i>) Open
Given climate change threats to ecosystems, it is critical to understand the responses of species to warming. This is especially important in the case of apex predators since they exhibit relatively high extinction risk, and changes to the…
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Restoring apex predators can reduce mesopredator abundances Open
The role that apex predators play in ecosystem functioning, disease regulation and biodiversity maintenance is \nincreasingly debated. However, the positive impacts of their presence in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly in \nhuman-domin…
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Disease-mediated bottom-up regulation: An emergent virus affects a keystone prey, and alters the dynamics of trophic webs Open
Emergent diseases may alter the structure and functioning of ecosystems by creating new biotic interactions and modifying existing ones, producing cascading processes along trophic webs. Recently, a new variant of the rabbit haemorrhagic d…
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Behavioral responses across a mosaic of ecosystem states restructure a sea otter–urchin trophic cascade Open
Significance Ecological processes that enhance or dampen the likelihood of shifts between top-down (i.e., predator-driven) and bottom-up (i.e., resource-driven) forcing underpin community regulation, functioning, and stability. Here, we de…
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Artificial light at night causes top‐down and bottom‐up trophic effects on invertebrate populations Open
Globally, many ecosystems are exposed to artificial light at night. Nighttime lighting has direct biological impacts on species at all trophic levels. However, the effects of artificial light on biotic interactions remain, for the most par…
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Nest Predators of North American Birds: Continental Patterns and Implications Open
Identifying nest predators is of fundamental importance to understanding avian breeding ecology and can contribute to identifying broadscale nest-predation patterns. We reviewed 53 North American nest-predator studies, comprising more than…
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Coral reef mesopredators switch prey, shortening food chains, in response to habitat degradation Open
Diet specificity is likely to be the key predictor of a predator's vulnerability to changing habitat and prey conditions. Understanding the degree to which predatory coral reef fishes adjust or maintain prey choice, in response to declines…
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Leopard distribution and abundance is unaffected by interference competition with lions Open
Lay SummaryWe tested the population-level effects of a dominant competitor—lions—on a subordinate—leopards. Although lions were a common cause of leopard mortality, they did not suppress or displace leopards. Population growth was similar …
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Variable strategies to solve risk–reward tradeoffs in carnivore communities Open
Significance An incomplete understanding of the total influence competitively dominant predators exert on subordinate species hinders our ability to anticipate the effects that changing carnivore populations will have on ecological communi…
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Coexistence of predators in time: Effects of season and prey availability on species activity within a Mediterranean carnivore guild Open
The degree of coexistence among predators can determine the structure of ecological communities. Niche partitioning is a common strategy applied by species to enhance their coexistence. Diet, habitat, or time use can be responsible for seg…
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The importance of ecological memory for trophic rewilding as an ecosystem restoration approach Open
Increasing human pressure on strongly defaunated ecosystems is characteristic of the Anthropocene and calls for proactive restoration approaches that promote self‐sustaining, functioning ecosystems. However, the suitability of novel restor…
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Trophic structure in a rapidly urbanizing planet Open
The human population is rapidly urbanizing, and the negative impacts of urban cover on biodiversity and ecosystem function are expected to increase. Trophic dynamics have been hypothesized to change with urbanization, with consequences for…
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Ecosystem regime shifts disrupt trophic structure Open
Regime shifts between alternative stable ecosystem states are becoming commonplace due to the combined effects of local stressors and global climate change. Alternative states are characterized as substantially different in form and functi…
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Temporal partitioning of activity: rising and falling top‐predator abundance triggers community‐wide shifts in diel activity Open
Top predators cause avoidance behaviours in competitors and prey, which can lead to niche partitioning and facilitate coexistence. We investigate changes in partitioning of the temporal niche in a mammalian community in response to both th…
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How directed is a directed network? Open
The trophic levels of nodes in directed networks can reveal their functional properties. Moreover, the trophic coherence of a network, defined in terms of trophic levels, is related to properties such as cycle structure, stability and perc…