Question: The population of which of the following 26 organisms would most likely decline if small animals like rats, rabbits, and snakes were eliminated from an ecosystem?
Answer: hawks
Hypothesis: if snakes / rats / rabbits are eliminated then the population of hawks will decline
Supporting facts: sent1: food supply often limits predator population size in an ecosystem sent2: avoiding predators is synonymous with avoiding being eaten sent3: the decrease of something required by an organism has a negative impact on that organism 's survival / that organism 's ability sent4: as a population of organisms increases , the resources used by those organisms will decrease sent5: population is a measure of the number of a species in an environment sent6: if an animal eats other animals for food , then the animal will be the predator sent7: avoiding predators has a positive impact on prey 's / an organism 's survival / health / ability to reproduce sent8: predators eat prey sent9: as population of predators increases , the population of prey will decrease in an environment sent10: if something is eliminated then the amount of that something decreases sent11: predators / carnivores / omnivores eat other animals sent12: to decrease can mean to decline sent13: as the supply of food in an environment decreases , the population of animals in that environment will decrease sent14: as the population of prey decreases , competition between predators will increase sent15: prey is a kind of food for predators sent16: as population of predators decreases , the population of prey will increase in an environment because predator eats prey sent17: as population of prey decreases , the population of predators will decrease sent18: rabbits eat plants sent19: insect bites cause harm to living things sent20: hawks eat snakes / rats / rabbits sent21: population is a measure of the amount of a certain species of animal in an evironment sent22: having no natural predators increases population size sent23: eating prey requires catching prey sent24: most predators live in / live near the same environment as their prey sent25: extinction has a negative impact on an ecosystem
Reasoning: [BECAUSE] if something is eliminated then the amount of that something decreases [AND] population is a measure of the amount of a certain species of animal in an evironment [INFER] int1: if an animal is eliminated then the population of that animal will decrease [BECAUSE] if an animal eats other animals for food , then the animal will be the predator [AND] predators eat prey [INFER] int2: if an animal eats another animal then the animal will be the predator and the other animal will be the prey [BECAUSE] int2 [AND] hawks eat snakes / rats / rabbits [INFER] int3: hawks are predators to snakes / rats / rabbits and snakes / rats / rabbits are prey to hawks [BECAUSE] int3 [AND] as population of prey decreases , the population of predators will decrease [INFER] int4: as the population of snakes / rats / rabbits decreases the population of hawks will decrease [BECAUSE] int1 [AND] int4 [INFER] int5: if snakes / rats / rabbits are eliminated then the population of hawks will decrease [BECAUSE] int5 [AND] to decrease can mean to decline [INFER] int6: if snakes / rats / rabbits are eliminated then the population of hawks will decline