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Top predators provide insurance against climate change.

Sala E

Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093-0202, USA. esala@ucsd.edu

Recent research by Wilmers et al. shows that top predators might buffer some of the ecological effects of climate change. Top predators can regulate the structure of entire communities and dampen their variability; however, in their absence, prey populations are likely to fluctuate greatly owing to bottom-up factors. Restoring top predators to their natural environment could provide insurance against undesired effects of climate change on ecological communities.

Published 24 August 2006 in Trends Ecol Evol, 21(9): 479-80.
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