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Population size is dynamic, increasing with birth rates and immigration, and decreasing with death rates and emigration. In ideal conditions with unlimited resources, populations can increase exponentially, which plots as a J-shaped growth rate curve of population size against time. This type of curve is characteristic of newly-introduced invasive species, or populations that have suffered catastrophic declines and are rebounding.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter

Published on: March 12, 2013

Top predators constrain mesopredator distributions.

Thomas M Newsome^1,2,3,4, Aaron C Greenville^2,5, Duško Ćirović⁶

¹School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3125, Australia.

Nature Communications

|May 24, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Top predators control mesopredators, but this effect weakens as top predator ranges shrink. This can lead to more mesopredators, impacting ecosystems and biodiversity.

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Wildlife conservation
Predator-prey dynamics

Background:

Top predators influence mesopredator populations through direct killing, resource competition, and fear.
The spatial variation in these top-down effects across large ecological scales remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how the distribution and abundance of top predators affect mesopredator suppression across different spatial scales.
To test the Enemy Constraint Hypothesis, predicting weaker top-down effects at the range margins of top predators.

Main Methods:

Analysis of historical bounty data from North America, Europe, and Australia.
Examining the relationship between top predator density and mesopredator abundance across their respective ranges.

Main Results:

Mesopredator suppression by top predators intensifies from the range margins towards the core areas.
This pattern supports the Enemy Constraint Hypothesis, demonstrating a clear spatial gradient in predator-prey interactions.

Conclusions:

The contraction of top predator ranges globally may lead to the release and increase of mesopredator populations.
This shift can significantly alter ecosystem structures and contribute to biodiversity loss, highlighting the importance of top predator conservation.