Definition of "trophic" [troph•ic]

• Of or relating to nutrition. (adjective)
• Ecology Of or involving the feeding habits or food relationship of different organisms in a food chain. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Introduced plants are a major threat to the native vegetation especially on islands where certain trophic levels may not be occupied leaving an opening, which can be readily occupied by an introduced species."
• "What he calls a trophic cascade is a reduction in apex predators leading to a higher abundance of planktivorous fish that feed on zooplankton biomass."
• "The process by which the apex beasts affect the rest of the ecosystem is called a 'trophic cascade', whereby their loss has a consequence on everything beneath them."