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      Cascading effects of the loss of apex predatory sharks from a coastal ocean.

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          Abstract

          Impacts of chronic overfishing are evident in population depletions worldwide, yet indirect ecosystem effects induced by predator removal from oceanic food webs remain unpredictable. As abundances of all 11 great sharks that consume other elasmobranchs (rays, skates, and small sharks) fell over the past 35 years, 12 of 14 of these prey species increased in coastal northwest Atlantic ecosystems. Effects of this community restructuring have cascaded downward from the cownose ray, whose enhanced predation on its bay scallop prey was sufficient to terminate a century-long scallop fishery. Analogous top-down effects may be a predictable consequence of eliminating entire functional groups of predators.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Science
          Science (New York, N.Y.)
          American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
          1095-9203
          0036-8075
          Mar 30 2007
          : 315
          : 5820
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 4J1, Canada.
          Article
          315/5820/1846
          10.1126/science.1138657
          17395829
          a99101a4-777a-43ab-a696-d4dc60a918cb
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