Macroecological patterns in mammal abundances provide evidence that an apex predator shapes forest ecosystems by suppressing herbivore and mesopredator abundance

Apex predators often exert strong, top‐down effects on ecosystems, and their removal can result in the dramatic reorganization of ecosystems owing to herbivores and smaller predators becoming the dominant trophic‐regulating species. However, field studies designed to understand the influence that apex predators have on ecosystems are hampered by the large spatial and temporal scales required. Here, we use pre‐existing datasets to test predictions on the direct and indirect effects of apex predators on mammals and vegetation generated from trophic cascade theory and the mesopredator release hypothesis.

• Publication year

  2015

• Venue

  Journal of Biogeography

• Publication date

  2015-10-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/jbi.12563
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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