A trophic cascade is a process that occurs when the removal or addition of a top predator in an ecosystem leads to dramatic changes in the population sizes and interactions of other organisms within the food web. This phenomenon highlights the interconnectedness of species and demonstrates how energy flows through different trophic levels, affecting everything from primary producers to herbivores and lower-level predators. It also emphasizes the importance of certain species, like keystone species, that can have outsized effects on their environment.
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