Within an ecosystem most animals on the landscape are known as prey species and therefore play a critical role on community structure. Some communities for instance are known as bottom—up structures meaning that the lower trophic levels (plants and primary producers [bugs]) stimulate the higher trophic levels via nutrient levels, vegetation growth, and increased biomass. Top—down trophic levels are driven by the higher trophic levels (ie. Predators and Herbivores). An example of this is structure is the otter-urchin-kelp cascade; otters consuming urchins allowing for an increase in kelp abundance.
While this information is important to understand, it doesn’t answer the original question: Why are prey species important? There is the obvious reason, which is they are food for the higher trophic levels such as predators, but this is not the only reason. Their land use and foraging strategies across the landscape shape the biodiversity of plant communities as well as the predator populations. Depending on the type of forager we can possibility predict where predators are going to be and for the duration at which they stay. Examining the prey compositions and detection rates at any given time is going to be critical for the understanding of mobility of the carnivore guild. Leading back to the question: why are prey species important?, because they are the underestimated artists of the landscape and understanding their behavior is crucial for conservation and carnivore research.
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