The paradox of enrichment is a term from population ecology coined by Michael Rosenzweig in 1971.[1] He described an effect in six predator–prey models where increasing the food available to the prey caused the predator's population to destabilize. A common example is that if the food supply of a prey such as a rabbit is overabundant, its population will grow unbounded and cause the predator population (such as a lynx) to grow unsustainably large. That may result in a crash in the population of the predators and possibly lead to local eradication or even species extinction.
The term 'paradox' has been used since then to describe this effect in slightly conflicting ways. The original sense was one of irony; by attempting to increase the carrying capacity in an ecosystem, one could fatally imbalance it. Since then, some authors have used the word to describe the difference between modelled and real predator–prey interactions.
Rosenzweig used ordinary differential equation models to describe changes in prey populations. Enrichment was taken to be increasing the prey carrying capacity and showing that the prey population destabilized, usually into a limit cycle.
The cycling behavior after destabilization was more thoroughly explored in a subsequent paper (May 1972)[2] and discussion (Gilpin and Rosenzweig 1972).[3]