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Biology-Related Homework Help Genetics and Developmental Biology Topic started by: Ayman Rashidi on Nov 24, 2022



Title: Help me with this difficult question
Post by: Ayman Rashidi on Nov 24, 2022
Use the following simple predator–prey relationships to answer the question (assume no other
interactions exist in this system): Mice eat grain grown by a farmer before it can be harvested.
The mice are consumed by several species of snakes, which themselves are consumed by hawks.
If the population of snakes were suddenly wiped out by disease, explain the long-term effects on
the grain, mice, and hawk populations, and why these effects would be observed.


Title: Re: Help me with this difficult question
Post by: paulinaibarra98 on Nov 24, 2022
This is simply a food chain.
The grains are primary producers here. Mice consume grains and inturn mice are consumed by snake. Snakes are consumed by hawks. Hawks also consume mice.

Grains – mice- snakes- hawks

If suddenly snake population wiped out, it will affect both hawks and mice population.

Initially mice population increases to certain limit because there are no snakes to consume mice. So the production of grains gets reduced.

Initially population of hawks also decreases due to the absence of snakes. At the same time, hawks shift or change their prey population completely to mice.

 That means there will be a pray shift and increases or normalize their population size.

After that the mice population will decrease and grain production will increase very much. Because there is no mice to consume grains.

Simply it is a top down control.

 In top down control, predator at higher tropic level control the population of consumer (prey )in the lower tropic level, which in turn controls the population of producer .

Top down control focus on the influence of top predator on the lower tropic level.


Title: Re: Help me with this difficult question
Post by: paulinaibarra98 on Nov 24, 2022
The mice act as primary consumers, the snakes are the secondary consumers and the hawks are the tertiary consumers. As the population of snakes decreases, the long-term effects will be a decrease in the population of the other two organisms. For example, The population of mice increases, and the population of hawks decreases. The hawks will starve due to the unavailability of food. As the population of mice increases, it will feed more on grains and the population of grains will be reduced. This condition explains the theory of the predator-prey model which states that the prey and predator share a linear relation and a slight change in the population of any one organism either prey or predator, will affect the population of another.


Title: Re: Help me with this difficult question
Post by: LurkeryBerry on Nov 24, 2022
The number of mice that eat grain would rise if there was a greater supply of grain in the environment for them to consume. The number of rats and mice in an area would go down if there were fewer snakes there to consume them. There would be a drop in the number of hawks in the world because there would be fewer snakes available for them to consume.

These impacts would be seen as a consequence of the significant role that snakes play in maintaining population levels of both mice and hawks as a food source for themselves. If there weren't any snakes around, the mice would have a larger progeny population, while the hawks would have a smaller one.

In the long run, the illness that eradicates the snake population will have the following consequences: an increase in the population of grain; a drop in the population of mice; and a decrease in the population of hawks.