Predators have considerably more influence than plants over how an ecosystem functions, according to a Yale study published in Science. The findings, according to the author, Oswald Schmitz, Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, are a “revolutionary” shift in thinking on the subject. Ecosystem ecologists have long held that plants and their interaction with the soil determine the type and abundance of herbivores and carnivores in an ecosystem. Schmitz’s paper, “Effects of Predator Hunting Mode on Grassland Ecosystem Function,” shows that the opposite is true.