A grass field is inhabited by mice and coyotes. The mice eat the grass and serve as food for the coyotes. A disease of unknown origin kills all the coyotes. What will happen to the ecosystem?
1 Answer
Oct 30, 2016
The mouse population will decrease drastically, and may also die off.
Explanation:
As long as the mice stay in their current location, the lack of coyotes will cause the mouse population size to grow unchecked to the point where they reduce the grass population so much that they will not have enough food to survive. Eventually population of mice will crash.
This emphasizes the importance of predator-prey relationships, which result in a balance between the species in their communities and ecosystems.
Thus in the said ecosystem, normally mouse population will remain stable but in absence of coyotes, their population will rise exponentially and then crash.
