Title: trophic cascade
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - trophic cascade
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.15111
Status: current

Definition
Situation arising when predators in a food chain suppress the abundance of their prey, thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from predation (or herbivory if the intermediate trophic level is an herbivore).

Notes
1) For example, if the abundance of large piscivorous fish is increased in a lake, the abundance of their prey, zooplanktivorous fish, should decrease, large zooplankton abundance should increase, and phytoplankton biomass should decrease.
2) Trophic cascades may also be important for understanding the effects of removing top predators from food webs, as humans have done in many places through hunting and fishing activities.

Related Terms
- food chain: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14698
- phytoplankton: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14918
- piscivorous: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14922
- planktivorous: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14923
- trophic level: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15113
- zooplankton: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15139

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 829. 'Glossary of terms used in ecotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 959 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-08-07-09)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15111/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15111/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15111/xml

Citation: Citation: 'trophic cascade' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.15111
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Accessed: 2026-06-29T05:56:24+00:00