![]() In the marine environment, trophic cascades are found mostly in coastal and benthic system ( 10, 11) but are believed to be uncommon in the open ocean ( 12, 13 ). We would ask that you attribute these to BioInteractive and not use them for commercial purposes. Trophic cascades have been described as indirect top-down effects on two or more trophic levels ( 7, 8) that have the potential to drive regime shifts in aquatic systems ( 3, 9 ). These card images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. A document within the ZIP file contains suggestions for their use. The “Card Images” ZIP file contains individual image files for the cards used in this activity that can be used in the classroom, particularly in online courses. ![]() This activity complements the concepts explored in other BioInteractive resources, including the Exploring Trophic Cascades Click & Learn and the short film So me Animals Are More Equal than Others: Keystone Species and Trophic Cascades. The discovery of trophic cascades shows that living systems cant function properly where certain species are missing. In the absence of otters, urchins consume most of the kelp and negatively affect other organisms that live in kelp forests. In a classic example, sea otters protect kelp forests by controlling the abundance of urchins that graze upon the kelp. Trophic cascades take place when apex predators alter the numbers not just of their own prey but also of the species with which they have no direct. These indirect effects by the predator can trickle down (or cascade) to many lower levels of the food chain. They occur when predators reduce the abundance or change the activity of their prey, thereby allowing species in the trophic level below to increase in number. ![]() Trophic cascades have been described in numerous ecosystems, ranging from kelp forests of the Pacific Ocean, to arctic islands, to Central American jungles, to salt marshes. The activity is designed to illustrate the species relationships in a food chain and the effect of predators on the trophic levels below. depending on the strength of specific density dependent responses in the food web. Trophic cascades resulting from EPN augmentation could affect pest control variously. ![]() due in part to the effects of natural enemies. In this activity, students model trophic cascades using cards of organisms from seven different habitats. agent will eventually decline to the equilibrium state. ![]()
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