is expected to lead to shifts in consumer-resource interactions that also contribute to losses of top predators or top herbivores . Cascading trophic effects triggered by top predators or the largest herbivores propagate through food webs and reverberate through to the functioning of whole ecosystems, notably altering productivity, carbon and nutrient turnover and net carbon storage  . Across different field experiments, the ecosystem consequences of the presence or absence of herbivores and carnivores have been found to be quantitatively as large as the effects of other environmental change drivers such as warming, enhanced CO2, fire and variable nitrogen deposition  . Some local and regional modelling experiments have begun to explore animal impacts on vegetation dynamics and carbon and nutrient cycling . Turnover rate is the chief factor that determines future land-ecosystem carbon dynamics and hence carbon-climate feedbacks . To improve projections, it is imperative to better quantify the broader role of carnivores, grazers and browsers and the way these interact in global studies of how ecosystems respond to climate change.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report