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Here is more info to add. The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone reveals how recovering ecosystems may diverge from their original states. For example, prior to the return of wolves, elk overbrowsing severely reduced riparian vegetation across the landscape and, in doing so, contributed to the loss of beavers (Castor canadensis), a keystone species essential for maintaining wetland habitats and stabilizing stream hydrology along some reaches. Subsequent increases in channel erosion caused significant downcutting of streams and lowering of water tables, thus inhibiting the recovery of riparian willows away from the streams.

This situation represents an example of ecological hysteresis, where the system's trajectory of recovery does not exactly follow its path of degradation and highlights the emergence of alternative states, in which the ecosystem can attain an alternative configuration for an unknown length of time, despite the restoration of apex predators. As a result, the recovery trajectory is shaped by the interplay of trophic dynamics, altered abiotic conditions, and the long-term absence of keystone species like wolves and beavers, whereby recovering ecosystems may not yet have the full array of structural and functional attributes that were present historically.