A food web is graphical representation of what eats what in an ecological community and is formed by the natural interconnection of food chains.
Freshwatermussel are important components of food webs. They are omnivores and they feed upon algae, zooplanktons, bacteria and dissolved organic matter.
If a virus wiped out the mussel population, the consumer (seagull, octopus, human) may not starve or die as they have other sources of food available. The other food sources available for human is fish, shark and octopus, for seagull is fish and for octopus is limpets. However as the consumer have lost a source of food, the competition for other food sources will increase. Competition occurs in a food web as individuals of different species struggle to obtain the same food.
The two other consumer of mussels are-human and octopus.
The population of consumers may not change drastically as other food sources are available.
