concept

Paradox of enrichment

The counter-intuitive finding that making a balanced predator-prey system richer can make it collapse. Raise the prey's carrying capacity - better soil, more rain, a lusher plant base - and past a threshold the cycles do not calm but widen: higher peaks, deeper troughs, until the bottom of the oscillation dips near zero and the smallest shock tips a population into extinction. Stability and abundance are not the same thing, and a system humming along in modest balance can be shaken to pieces by the well-meaning gift of plenty.