Question

Q3.13. In our simulation of herbivores feeding in a farm pasture, we treated each species as if it were foraging all by itself. Of course, in real ecosystems, there are many different herbivores, some of which compete with one another for food. If both sheep and grasshoppers were feeding in a pasture, how do you think the grasshoppers would affect sheep

Answer 1

Answer:

The grasshopper competes with the sheep for food, thereby reducing the available quantity and quality of food for the sheep.

Explanation:

In an ecosystem, many organisms rely on the same food source. The success of a particular species in extracting the food source better than another species that needs that same food source can affect the success of  population of this other species of animal. If the number of grasshopper in this pasture becomes too much, it might lead to the consumption of a large portion of the pasture by the grasshopper, leading to a reduction in the available food for the sheep. If this happens, the population of the sheep might decline in order to balance the increase in the population of the grasshopper.