Ecology 6th Edition by Charles Krebs

Exercise 8

Trophic cascades are weaker in terrestrial systems compared with aquatic ones (II.ill et al. 2007). Onesuggested explanation for this difference is that differences in body size between plants and their herbivores could be responsible (Shurin et al. 2006). Discuss the relative size of plants and their herbivores in aquatic ecosystems and in terrestrial ecosystems, and speculate how these differences might affect trophic cascades.