Question

Michigan is part of the Great Lakes region in the U.S. The Great Lakes ecosystem contains various types of habitats: forests, marshes, wetlands, and dune communities. These communities allow for more than 3,500 species of plants and animals to inhabit the basin. The many varieties of mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fish make the Great Lakes basin a unique and complicated ecosystem. The picture above shows one complex food web you might find within the Great Lakes. Students in biology class used a computer simulation to determine the effects of biodiversity on the stability of a food web. Their research question was: How does food web complexity affect the biodiversity of an ecosystem? Student groups were able to manipulate one variable in the food web. One student group added an herbicide to the waters during their simulation. The herbicide was the result of farming in the area. Based on the students' modification of the simulation, what would you expect to happen to this food web? A) We would expect a decline of any filter feeders that relied on unicellular algae for food. B) The first level consumers, the herbivores such as the mussels and water fleas, would die out. C) An overall collapse of the food web as the herbicide would kill all producers and they are the base of any food web. D) If the herbicide was toxic to algae, we would expect a collapse of the food web. If toxic only to plants, we would expect a decrease in some primary consumers.

Answer 1

I believe the answer is B) or D). I'm pretty sure it's D) though. Because algae is necessary to so many organisms, there would be a huge collapse of the ecosystem. If it was only toxic to plants, the ecosystem would still have terrible changes. But it wouldn't be as bad.

I would choose D).

Answer 2

Option C, An overall collapse of the food web as the herbicide would kill all producers and they are the base of any food web

Step-by-step explanation:

Addition of herbicide is not only harmful to the producers with in the lakes but all associated living organism. Herbicides will kill the producers and If the producers will die then the first level consumers will also die due to lack of food. Secondary consumers dependent on primary consumers will also die as they will not get sufficient food. Like wise, the tertiary consumers will also die. In this way the overall food web will collapse when herbicides are added to lake.

Hence, option C is correct.