
The Ecologist Who Threw Starfish - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/34/adaptation/the-ecologist-who-threw-starfish
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dredmorbius
The top predator effect was noted by Aldo Leopold in an essay included in _A
Sand County Almanac_ , of the removal of wolves from wild lands especially
through the American Southwest and West, "Thinking Like a Mountain". The
collection was published after Leopold's death, in 1949, and so his
observations and writing predate that.

Good piece in Nautilus, but it really ought have given Leopold his due.

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nkurz
While this particular article doesn't mention it, in Nautilus's defense,
Leopold's "Thinking Like A Mountain" concept is the focus of the first
"Related Article" linked at the bottom of the page:
[http://nautil.us/issue/101/in-our-nature/what-the-deer-
are-t...](http://nautil.us/issue/101/in-our-nature/what-the-deer-are-telling-
us-rp)

~~~
dredmorbius
Thanks for that.

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btilly
td;lr

He threw starfish out of an area to find out what happened if you removed the
top predator. What happened is that a single prey animal then had nothing to
suppress it and wiped everything else out. This result has been replicated
many times now, and these top predators are called "keystone species".

It ends with some commentary on how many top predators we've wiped out, and
how little we understand about what the consequences will be.

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nkurz
To add a few more players to the trophic cascade:

The sea otter population has rebounded along the Central California coast, but
their spread to Northern California is limited by shark predation. As a result
of the absence of sea otters, north of San Francisco the abalone populations
have rebounded. The abalone in turn, compete with the urchins to eat the kelp.
There's concern that if the otters spread further north, the abalone
population will be decimated. But this raises the question: didn't the otters
and abalone coevolve?

[http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2006/02/research.html](http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2006/02/research.html)

