Mesopredator release

Mesopredator release is an increase in medium-sized predators after larger predators decline or disappear, often because reduced predation or competition allows them to become more abundant.

Trophic cascade: A chain of effects across feeding levels caused by changes in predators or consumers. Mesopredator release is a predator-driven cascade in which effects extend down the food web.
Sea otter: A marine mammal that feeds heavily on sea urchins and other invertebrates. Sea otter declines can release urchins, illustrating a related cascade rather than mesopredator release itself.
Biodiversity: The variety of life across genes, species, and ecosystems. Released mesopredators can reduce vulnerable prey and alter local species diversity.
Ecological release: An increase in a population after a constraint such as competition or predation is reduced. Mesopredator release is a specific case involving medium-sized predators and larger predators.
Intraguild predation: Predation between species that also compete for shared prey. Large predators can suppress mesopredators by killing them as well as competing with them.
Kelp forest: A coastal marine ecosystem dominated by large brown algae called kelp. Kelp forests reveal how predator changes can reshape prey abundance and habitat.
Trophic downgrading: The ecological changes caused by loss of large predators from an ecosystem. Mesopredator increases are one common pathway through which predator loss changes ecosystems.
Competitive release: An increase in a population after a competing species declines or disappears. It can resemble mesopredator release, but does not require the lost competitor to be a predator.
Competition: An interaction in which organisms reduce one another’s access to limited resources. When top predators decline, mesopredators may face less competition for prey or habitat.
Coyote: A highly adaptable North American canid that hunts small animals and scavenges widely. Coyotes have increased in some regions as wolves and other large carnivores declined.

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