According to the bottom-up theory of how ecosystems are structured, the availability of edible plants is what primarily determines an ecosystem' s characteristics since it determines how many herbivores the ecosystem can support, which in turn determines how many predators it can support
This theory also holds that a reduction in the number of predators will have little impact on the rest of the ecosystem
After many of the trees on Jaevix Island were cleared, the island's leaf-cutter ants, which require a forested ecosystem, experienced a substantial decrease in population, as did the island's anteaters.