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In ecosystems that are strongly structured by predation, reducing top predator abundance can alter several lower trophic levels-a process known as a trophic cascade. A persistent trophic cascade also fits the definition of a regime shift. Such 'trophic cascade regime shifts' have been reported in a few pelagic marine systems-notably the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and eastern Scotian Shelf-raising the question of how common this phenomenon is in the marine environment. Here scientists provide a general methodology for distinguishing top-down and bottom-up effects and apply this methodology to time series from these three ecosystems. [Source: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | Biological Sciences]
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