Question 5

Will the impact of removing all the organisms in a trophic level be different for different trophic levels? Can the organisms of any trophic level be removed without causing any damage to the ecosystem?

Answer

The impact of removing all the organisms in the trophic level will be the same at each independent trophic level. When we remove or kill the organism of any trophic level it will be an damage to the ecosystem.



For example, in a pond food chain:-

Phytoplanktons       ←       Zooplanktons      ←       Small fishes       ←       Large fishes       ←         Snakes, birds

In this food chain phytoplanktons are eaten by zooplanktons and then zooplanktons get eaten by the small fishes; small fishes are eaten by the large fishes in the pond and then at the last trophic level large fishes get caught and eaten by the snake or the birds. So, we can see that all the trophic levels in the ecosystem are dependent on each other. If we remove any one trophic level population like we remove zooplanktons in the food chain then the lower trophic level, i.e, phytoplanktons population will get increase in number which will disturb the entire ecosystem.

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