Question

The diagram shows a food web in a national park.

A diagram of a food web is shown. Grasses, Aspen Trees, Cottonwood, and Willow are shown at the lowest level, Beaver, rabbit, elk, and mule deer are shown at the second level from the bottom. Topmost level has the coyote and gray wolf. Arrows are drawn from grasses to beaver, grasses to rabbit, grasses to elk, grasses to mule deer, aspen trees to beaver, aspen trees to elk, aspen trees to mule deer, cottonwood to beaver, cottonwood to elk, cottonwood to mule deer, willow to elk, willow to mule deer, beaver to coyote, rabbit to coyote, elk to gray wolf, and mule deer to gray wolf.

What is most likely the effect of unrestricted hunting of gray wolves on the food web?
The population of coyotes will increase.
The population of all plants will decrease.
The population of beavers and rabbits will increase.
The population of elks and mule deer will decrease.

Answer 1

Answer: The population of beavers and rabbits will increase.

Step-by-step explanation:

Wolves are carnivores—they prefer to eat large hoofed mammals such as deer, elk, bison, and moose. They also hunt smaller mammals such as beavers, rodents, and rabbits. So initially, the population of beavers and rabbits will increase.

Answer 2

The population of all plants will decrease.

Step-by-step explanation:

As you can see, if the hunting of grey wolves becomes unrestricted the population of grey wolves would decreased, this means that the natural predator for Elks and mule deer will be diminished, which means that not enough Elks and mule deers will be eaten, this would increase its population, and therefore since elks and mule deers feed on all the plants that you can find in that pyramid, the population of all plants will decrease since there will be more elks and mule deers to feed.