Trophic cascade
Cascada trófica
- Date
- 1949 · confidence low
- Place
- Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States
- Credited to
- Aldo Leopold
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
An ecological concept describing how the effects of top predators cascade down a food chain, altering prey abundance and vegetation, intuited by Aldo Leopold from his observations of wolves and deer.
What it led to
- foundation of top-down control in community ecology
- theoretical basis for large-predator reintroduction programs such as wolves in Yellowstone
- spur to experimental research in trophic ecology