Articles | Volume 20, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/we-20-1-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/we-20-1-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Scientists' warning on endangered food webs
Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences,
University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
William J. Ripple
Global Trophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and
Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97330, USA
Anna Traveset
Global Change Research Group, Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios
Avanzados, CSIC-UIB, 07190 Esporles, Mallorca, Spain
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Latest update: 15 Jun 2026
Short summary
It is not only the climate that is changing. We are now also observing a global biological change. Here we revise the overwhelming evidence that these changes affect not only individual species but also simplify the structure of entire food webs, threatening long-term community persistence. We must take urgent action to protect the integrity of natural food webs, or we might rapidly push entire ecosystems outside their safe zones.
It is not only the climate that is changing. We are now also observing a global biological...