Sea Otters¶
Estes, J. A., & Palmisano, J. F. (1974). Sea Otters: Their Role in Structuring Nearshore Communities. Science, 185(4156), 1058-1060.
Cited by¶
2 citations across 2 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Cascade
- Ecology: Removing a top predator releases its prey, whose population explosion then crashes the prey's own food source, reshaping populations down the food web — a trophic cascade in which a single removal propagates through coupled feeding relationships.
This sourceCanonical trophic cascade: removing the apex predator (sea otter) releases sea urchins, whose population explosion overgrazes and collapses the kelp forest — a single removal propagating down a coupled food web.
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
Estes and Palmisano report that "Removal of sea otters causes increased herbivory and ultimately results in the destruction of macrophyte associations", and that otter reestablishment indirectly affects island fauna associated with macrophyte primary productivity. That is the chain the sentence describes: removing the apex predator releases its herbivorous prey, whose grazing destroys the plants they feed on, with effects reaching further through the community. The work compares Aleutian islands with and without otters and does not describe a population explosion in those terms or generalise beyond this case to top predators at large.
“Removal of sea otters causes increased herbivory and ultimately results in the destruction of macrophyte associations.”
- Ecology: Removing a top predator releases its prey, whose population explosion then crashes the prey's own food source, reshaping populations down the food web — a trophic cascade in which a single removal propagates through coupled feeding relationships.
- Chesterton's Fence
- Ecology — removing an apparently superfluous species can collapse a trophic web when the species was load-bearing in non-obvious ways (sea otters sustaining kelp forests via urchin control).
This sourceShows sea otters control sea urchins and thereby sustain kelp forests — the keystone trophic constraint whose removal collapses the web.
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
Estes and Palmisano report that "Sea otters control herbivorous invertebrate populations" and that their removal "causes increased herbivory and ultimately results in the destruction of macrophyte associations", with indirect effects on island fauna tied to macrophyte productivity. The otter's role in holding up the plant community is not legible from the otter alone, which is the case the sentence uses as its example of a load-bearing species. The work speaks of herbivorous invertebrates and macrophyte associations rather than urchins, kelp forests or keystone species, and the general principle about apparently superfluous species is a generalisation from this single case.
“Sea otters control herbivorous invertebrate populations. Removal of sea otters causes increased herbivory and ultimately results in the destruction of macrophyte associations.”
- Ecology — removing an apparently superfluous species can collapse a trophic web when the species was load-bearing in non-obvious ways (sea otters sustaining kelp forests via urchin control).
Verification¶
Does it exist? Confirmed. This work's DOI resolves to a registered record, which fixes its identity. That is all it fixes.
Does it back the claim? Read against the text for 2 of 2 citations: 2 supported in part. Each verdict is shown under its citation below, with what in the work backs the sentence.
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Registry ID ref:731055a0963e · see in the full table