To learn more about how Florida International University's research, visit https://FIU.edu

A world without predators. It sounds like a safer, happier world, but come on, this is SCIENCE…

LEARN MORE

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

• Ecosystem: a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
• Herbivore: an animal that feeds on plants.
• Top predator: a predator without natural predators of its own.
• Trophic cascade: an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators.

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CREDITS

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Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Storyboard Artist Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

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OUR STAFF

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

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REFERENCES

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Estes, James A., et al. “Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth.” Science, vol. 333, no. 6040, 14 July 2011, pp. 301–306, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1205106

Moore, Peter D. “Green and Pleasant Trials.” Nature, vol. 440, no. 7084, Mar. 2006, pp. 613–614, www.nature.com/articles/440613a, https://doi.org/10.1038/440613a

Stolzenburg, William. “Ecosystems Unraveling.” Anthropocene, 31 July 2008, www.anthropocenemagazine.org/conservation/2008/07/ecosystems-unraveling/

Terborgh, J. “Ecological Meltdown in Predator-Free Forest Fragments.” Science, vol. 294, no. 5548, 30 Nov. 2001, pp. 1923–1926, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1064397