Negative feedback reduces or offsets ecosystem changes

In contrast, negative feedback diminishes or counteracts changes in an ecosystem to maintain a more stable balance. Consider predators and their prey. When lynx eat snowshoe hares, they reduce their population, but this drop in the lynx's food source will soon cause their own population to decline, reducing the predation rate and allowing the hare population to increase again. The ongoing cycle creates an up and down wavelike pattern, maintaining a long-term equilibrium and
allowing a food chain to persist over time.