How do predators affect a population?
Answer: Yes, the cat is the predator while the prey is the rat.
Predators also help in maintaining species diversity in a community, by reducing the intensity of competition among competing prey species.
Predation influences organisms at two ecological levels. At the level of the community, predation reduces the number of individuals in the prey population. The best-known examples of predation involve carnivorous interactions, in which one animal consumes another.
What effect do predator/prey relationships tend to have on community populations?
How do predators affect the environment?
They grow more slowly, reproduce less, and populations decline. As predator populations increase, they put greater strain on the prey populations and act as a top-down control, pushing them toward a state of decline. Thus both availability of resources and predation pressure affect the size of prey populations.
