Question

In the food web above, if new species of insect were introduced that fed primarily on plantains, how would the following populations be affected? Indicate your answer by increase , decrease or no change and include a brief explanation of your reasoning.

A) greenfly

B) rabbit

C) fox

Answer 1

Greenfly- no change

The greenfly would remain unaffected because it doesn’t rely on plantains.

Rabbit- decrease

The rabbit relies on plantains as food so more competition would result in a decrease in the rabbit population

Fox- decrease

Lesser food means lesser foxes. The foxes prey like the rabbit and mouse eat plantains. If the mouse and fat population goes down so would the fox population.

Answer 2

This is a 50/50 answer. I believe it would be fox, sorry if this is incorrect.