How would the stability of the ecosystem be affected if the producers in your food web were destroyed by the disaster?

Question

The food web would collapse because producers provide the energy to all other organisms.

More food would be available for secondary consumers.

It would only have an effect on the primary consumers.

It would only affect the top level consumers.

Answer 1

If the producers in a food web were destroyed by a disaster, the most accurate statement regarding the effect on ecosystem stability is:

The food web would collapse because producers provide the energy to all other organisms.

Producers, such as plants and phytoplankton, are the foundation of the food web, converting sunlight into energy through photosynthesis. Without producers, there would be a drastic reduction in available energy for primary consumers (herbivores) and, subsequently, for secondary and tertiary consumers (carnivores and apex predators). This disruption would lead to a cascading effect throughout the entire ecosystem, severely impacting all trophic levels and potentially causing the collapse of the food web.