How to Use trophic in a Sentence

trophic

adjective
  • This is, in effect, a trophic shift—the length of the species’ food chain has changed.
    — Wendy Mitman Clarke, Smithsonian, 26 Apr. 2017
  • Some experts, however, aren’t so sure that a trophic cascade is at work here.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 15 May 2017
  • This led to a chain of cause and effect (a trophic cascade) that affected beavers, birds, and even the flow of the river.
    — Nitin Sekar, ArsTechnica, 5 Apr. 2025
  • The insect, along with ants, is also an integral piece of trophic dynamics.
    — Kate Armanini, Chicago Tribune, 15 June 2024
  • The effect is known as a trophic cascade, in which the removal of a key species has ripple effects throughout the ecosystem.
    — Steve Winter, National Geographic, 9 Mar. 2018
  • There has been a lot of research done on how removing predators can cause a trophic cascade that can result in a collapse of a system.
    — Jacqueline Cutler, USA TODAY, 12 Dec. 2017
  • The locus coeruleus neurons make substances called trophic factors, which promote the building of neural circuits.
    — Kelyn Soong, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Feb. 2023
  • But Lyson, Chester, and others argue that the extinction was sudden and catas- trophic, and the new find supports their view.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 22 Dec. 2011
  • Rather, this is an information pyramid, with very few apex organisms as one ascends up the cascade of info-trophic layers.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 24 July 2012
  • Its extinction likely led to impacts on marine ecosystems, Cooper says, via trophic cascades.
    — Sean Mowbray, Discover Magazine, 2 Sep. 2022
  • This indicated that the birds’ food chain had become shorter; somewhere in the birds’ food chain, animals were eating at a lower trophic level.
    — Wendy Mitman Clarke, Smithsonian, 26 Apr. 2017
  • His research focuses on trophic cascade, which is the domino effect of habitat loss and ecological crisis caused by changes in the numbers of predators and prey within a food chain.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 5 Nov. 2019
  • This shift has created a trophic mismatch, meaning plants bloom earlier, and insects that eat the plants emerge earlier, while the red knot chicks that eat the insects are hatching too late to feed on them at their peak.
    — National Geographic, 12 May 2016
  • This kind of top-down ecological shift, known as a trophic cascade, has been documented in a handful of marine systems (like the coral reefs mentioned above), but rarely with such clarity.
    — Melissa Cristina Márquez, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
  • In biological circles, this ecological ripple effect is known as a trophic cascade.
    — Brent Crane, Discover Magazine, 12 Mar. 2019
  • This type of indirect interaction where organisms at the top of the food chain affect those at the bottom, or vice versa, is called a trophic cascade—named for the effects that cascade throughout the rungs of the food chain.
    — Sam Zlotnik, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Aug. 2022
  • Their gradual reestablishment triggered a trophic cascade much like the reintroduction of the Yellowstone wolves had, but for different reasons.
    — Brian Switek, WIRED, 14 June 2010
  • As discriminating hunters of their territories’ stragglers, wolves actually keep herds healthy, and structure food webs with wide-reaching ripple effects, called trophic cascades.
    — Josh Adler, National Geographic, 11 Apr. 2019
  • These population shifts can cause what’s known as a trophic cascade, an ecological process in which a change in the population of a top predator affects other species lower in the food chain, triggering a chain reaction.
    — Madison Dapcevich, Outside, 29 Aug. 2025
  • These include increasing or decreasing prey, changing competitive abilities, shifting feeding rates and altering trophic cascades.
    — Nancy Averett, Scientific American, 18 Nov. 2020
  • Researchers used the teeth of 13 megalodon sharks and 20 modern sharks to analyze dietary signatures and their trophic levels, which refers to where the animals fit in the food chain, CNN reports.
    — Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 June 2022
  • In Colorado, proponents say reintroduction will create a healthy corridor for the apex predators between Canada and Mexico, and that wolves create a positive trophic cascade for ecosystems.
    — Heather Hansman, Outside Online, 27 Oct. 2020
  • Since species do not live in isolation, phenological changes can cascade through biological communities through trophic, competitive and mutualistic interactions, according to the study.
    — Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 30 Nov. 2021
  • The water availability hypothesis, proposing that water supply underlies primary productivity and enables more diversity at higher trophic levels.
    — Jeffrey Marlow, Discover Magazine, 31 Dec. 2016

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'trophic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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