Question

Many different organisms live in Amanda’s garden. The diagram shows a simple food web of some of the organisms in her garden.

In a balanced community, a population of prey can benefit from predators. Which statement BEST describes how the population of mice can benefit from the snakes in this garden?

The snakes keep the mice from overpopulating, which could deplete their resources.

The snakes also consume moles, which allow the population of mice to increase.

The snakes provide an energy source for the mice.

The snakes will consume only the mice best adapted to their environment.

Answer 1

The snakes keep the mice from overpopulating, which could deplete their resources.

Step-by-step explanation:

The mice and the moles are not competing against each other as they feed on different food. The problem is that if the mice population is not regulated, their very quick reproduction will cause overpopulation in very short space of time. The more mice there will be , the more food will be needed, so very soon the resources will be depleted, resulting in collapse of the mice population. This is where the snakes come in action, as they eat mice, so they are the ones that control and keep their population stable, thus not allowing the mice to overpopulate the area and destroy themselves.