our new paper on the size dependence of trophic cascades

We have a new paper out in The American Naturalist on "The body size dependence of trophic cascades".

Trophic cascades are indirect positive effects of predators on resources via control of intermediate consumers. Larger-bodied predators appear to induce stronger trophic cascades, but how this happens is unknown because we lack a clear depiction of how the strength of trophic cascades is determined. In this paper we show that the strength of a trophic cascade has an upper limit set by the interaction strength between the basal trophic group and its consumer, and this limit is approached as the interaction strength between the consumer and its predator increases. Our results suggest that the loss of larger predators will have greater consequences on trophic control and biomass structure in food webs than the loss of smaller predators. 

View this paper on our PUBLICATIONS page.