Question

Imagine that an ecosystem contains rabbits, foxes, wolves, and deer. The following predator-prey relationships exist:

Rabbits are eaten by foxes and wolves

Deer are eaten by wolves

Foxes are eaten by wolves

Select the animal whose absence would have the greatest negative effect on the ecosystem.

(1 point)

rabbit
rabbit

deer
deer

fox
fox

wolf

Answer 1

[AI-generated answer — Bot GPT 3.5]

In this ecosystem, the absence of wolves would have the greatest negative effect. Wolves are at the top of the food chain and are the predators of both rabbits and deer. Without wolves, the populations of rabbits and deer would likely increase rapidly, leading to overgrazing and potential ecosystem imbalance. The absence of wolves would also disrupt the predator-prey dynamics between foxes and rabbits. Therefore, the absence of wolves would have the most significant impact on the ecosystem.