Question

Consider the following marine community: Sea otters prey on sea urchins and therefore help maintain a healthy sea urchin population. Sea urchins prey on kelp. By helping to maintain viable sea urchin populations, the sea otters are also allowing enough kelp to grow and act as a habitat for other organisms. Suppose that a bacterial infection swept across a sea otter population and killed most sea otters before they could reproduce. How would the marine community be affected

Answer 1

There will be a larger sea urchin population and less kelp. Having less kelp will result in habitat loss for other organisms.

Step-by-step explanation:

The sea otters preyed on the sea urchin, and the sea urchin preyed on the kelp. When the sea otter population whipped, there was no other organism to prey on the sea urchin. This leads to a larger population of sea urchins, and now since this happened, there will be less kelp because the population of sea urchins has increased, and that's what they feed on. With less kelp, there will not be a habitat for other organisms.