Natural enemies and biodiversity: The double-edged sword of trophic interactions

Naturalenemies, that is, species that inflict harm on others to feed on them,are fundamental drivers of biodiversity dynamics and represent asubstantial portion of it. Along the life history of the Earth,natural enemies have been involved in probably some of the mostproductive mechanisms of biodiversity genesis; that is, adaptiveradiation mediated by enemy-victim coevolutionary processes. Atecological timescales, natural enemies are a fundamental piece of foodwebs and can contribute to biodiversity preservation by promotingstability and coexistence at lower trophic levels through top-downregulation mechanisms. However, natural enemies often produce dramaticlosses of biodiversity wherein, in most cases, humans take part ofit.