Field exclusion of large soil predators impacts lower trophic levels and decreases leaf‐litter decomposition in dry forests

Shifts in densities of apex predators may indirectly affect fundamental ecosystem processes, such as decomposition, by altering patterns of cascading effects propagating through lower trophic levels. These top–down effects may interact with anthropogenic impacts, such as climate change, in largely unknown ways. We investigated how changes in densities of large predatory arthropods in forest leaf‐litter communities altered lower trophic levels...