Removal of an apex predator initiates a trophic cascade that extends from herbivores to vegetation and the soil nutrient pool.

ABSTRACT: It is widely assumed that organisms at low trophic levels, particularly microbes and plants, are essential to basic services in ecosystems, such as nutrient cycling. In theory, apex predators' effects on ecosystems could extend to nutrient cycling and the soil nutrient pool by influencing the intensity and spatial organization of herbivory. Here, we take advantage of a long-term manipulation of dingo abundance across Australia's dingo-proof fence in the Strzelecki Desert to investigate the effects that removal of an apex predator has on herbivore abundance, vegetation and the soil nutrient pool. Results showed that kangaroos were more abundant where dingoes were rare, and effects of kangaroo exclusion on vegetation, and total carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus in the soil were

SUBMITTER: Morris T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5443940 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature