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A partial Texas food web is shown.

The populations of which organisms will most likely increase as a result of a disease that suddenly reduced the population of Texas horned lizards?

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Ants and grasshoppers

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Grasses and ants

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Texas cottonmouths and red-shouldered hawks

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Grasshoppers and Texas cottonmouths

1 answer

In a food web, the impact of a population decline can have cascading effects on other organisms. If the population of Texas horned lizards decreases due to disease, the organisms that depend on them for food (predators) may experience a decrease in their population due to lack of food, while the populations of the organisms that the Texas horned lizards consume may increase.

Texas horned lizards primarily feed on ants and some grasshoppers. With the decrease in horned lizards, we would expect the populations of ants and grasshoppers to likely increase.

Thus, the populations of ants and grasshoppers will most likely increase as a result of the disease that reduced the population of Texas horned lizards.