Trophic cascades may become apparent when a top predator is eliminated from the system. What is the term for this phenomenon?

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Multiple Choice

Trophic cascades may become apparent when a top predator is eliminated from the system. What is the term for this phenomenon?

Removing a top predator can start a domino effect through the food web. When the apex predator is gone, prey populations often rise, which can overconsume vegetation or alter the dynamics of species at the next trophic level, leading to changes in multiple organisms and ecological processes. This chain of effects across several trophic levels is called a trophic cascade. The other terms don’t capture this predator-driven, multi-level ripple: primary succession is about new plant colonization after disturbance; biomass is just the total living matter in an area; a phase shift is a large-scale change in ecosystem state but doesn’t by itself describe the predator-induced cascading effects.

Removing a top predator can start a domino effect through the food web. When the apex predator is gone, prey populations often rise, which can overconsume vegetation or alter the dynamics of species at the next trophic level, leading to changes in multiple organisms and ecological processes. This chain of effects across several trophic levels is called a trophic cascade. The other terms don’t capture this predator-driven, multi-level ripple: primary succession is about new plant colonization after disturbance; biomass is just the total living matter in an area; a phase shift is a large-scale change in ecosystem state but doesn’t by itself describe the predator-induced cascading effects.

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