Eco-balance

Loss of predators in the food chain can alter the ecosystem - USATODAY.com: "Take away the predators at the top of the food chain — the lions, tigers, wolves and cougars — and entire ecosystems start to change. A paper in today's edition of the journal Science suggests that humans' destruction of these top predators is causing reverberations worldwide in ways not apparent even a decade ago, including changes in the landscape and even increases in wildfires.


Although the idea that there are serious ecosystem consequences to the removal of top predators isn't new, with this paper, 'it's come of age,' says Aaron Wirsing, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Washington in Seattle."