The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Rise of the Mesopredator
Abstract
Apex predators have experienced catastrophic declines throughout the world as a result of human persecution and habitat loss. These collapses in top predator populations are commonly associated with dramatic increases in the abundance of smaller predators. Known as “mesopredator release,” this trophic interaction has been recorded across a range of communities and ecosystems. Mesopredator outbreaks often lead to declining prey populations, sometimes destabilizing communities and driving local extinctions. We present an overview of mesopredator release and illustrate how its underlying concepts can be used to improve predator management in an increasingly fragmented world. We also examine shifts in North American carnivore ranges during the past 200 years and show that 60% of mesopredator ranges have expanded, whereas all apex predator ranges have contracted. The need to understand how best to predict and manage mesopredator release is urgent—mesopredator outbreaks are causing high ecological, economic, and social costs around the world.
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A note on trophic complexity and community stability.
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Mesopredator release and avifaunal extinctions in a fragmented system
Crooks, K. R., & Soulé, M. E. (1999) · Nature · doi:10.1038/23028 · Cited by 1,721
Cascading Effects of the Loss of Apex Predatory Sharks from a Coastal Ocean
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Wolves and the Ecology of Fear: Can Predation Risk Structure Ecosystems?
RIPPLE, W. J., & BESCHTA, R. L. (2004) · BioScience · doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0755:wateof]2.0.co;2 · Cited by 813
Self-citationEcological extinction and evolution in the brave new ocean
Jackson, J. B. C. (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0802812105 · Cited by 611
Range Contractions of North American Carnivores and Ungulates
LALIBERTE, A. S., & RIPPLE, W. J. (2004) · BioScience · doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0123:rconac]2.0.co;2 · Cited by 528
Self-citationPeckarsky, B. L., Abrams, P. A., Bolnick, D. I., Dill, L. M., Grabowski, J. H., Luttbeg, B., Orrock, J. L., Peacor, S. D., Preisser, E. L., Schmitz, O. J., et al. (2008) · Ecology · doi:10.1890/07-1131.1 · Cited by 527
Does interference competition with wolves limit the distribution and abundance of coyotes?
BERGER, K. M., & GESE, E. M. (2007) · Journal of Animal Ecology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2007.01287.x · Cited by 398 · cited 3×
“For example, Crooks and Soulé (1999) showed that coyotes were a major source of mortality for cats in southern California, Berger and Gese (2007) found that wolf predation was a limiting factor for coyotes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Helldin and colleagues (2006) showed that lynx (Lynx…”
BackgroundTrophic control of mesopredators in terrestrial ecosystems: top‐down or bottom‐up?
Elmhagen, B., & Rushton, S. P. (2007) · Ecology Letters · doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.01010.x · Cited by 304
Cited by
Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth
Estes, J. A., Terborgh, J., Brashares, J. S., Power, M. E., Berger, J., Bond, W. J., Carpenter, S. R., Essington, T. E., Holt, R. D., Jackson, J. B. C., et al. (2011) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1205106 · Cited by 4,087
Self-citationStatus and Ecological Effects of the World’s Largest Carnivores
Ripple, W. J., Estes, J. A., Beschta, R. L., Wilmers, C. C., Ritchie, E. G., Hebblewhite, M., Berger, J., Elmhagen, B., Letnic, M., Nelson, M. P., et al. (2014) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1241484 · Cited by 3,667
Self-citationMarine defaunation: Animal loss in the global ocean
McCauley, D. J., Pinsky, M. L., Palumbi, S. R., Estes, J. A., Joyce, F. H., & Warner, R. R. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1255641 · Cited by 1,305
Is Wildlife Going to the Dogs? Impacts of Feral and Free-roaming Dogs on Wildlife Populations
Young, J. K., Olson, K. A., Reading, R. P., Amgalanbaatar, S., & Berger, J. (2011) · BioScience · doi:10.1525/bio.2011.61.2.7 · Cited by 384
Rangeland Systems: Processes, Management and Challenges
(2017) · Springer Series on Environmental Management · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-46709-2 · Cited by 197
Metadata
- Authors
- Prugh, L. R., Stoner, C. J., Epps, C. W., Bean, W. T., Ripple, W. J., Laliberte, A. S., & Brashares, J. S.
- Venue
- BioScience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2009-10
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 779-791
- ISSN
- 0006-3568 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-3244
- OpenAlex
- W2125954771
- Cited by
- 977
- References
- 13
- FWCI
- 21.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Rise of the Mesopredator. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1525/bio.2009.59.9.9
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- Prugh, L. R., Stoner, C. J., Epps, C. W., Bean, W. T., Ripple, W. J., Laliberte, A. S., & Brashares, J. S. (2009). The Rise of the Mesopredator. BioScience. https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2009.59.9.9
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
