5. which statement below explains why the mussels in mukkaw bay were able to quickly cover the rock

face in paine's experiment?

the starfish took up most of the room on the rocks, and when the starfish were removed, the

mussels occupied the empty spaces.

paine added more mussels to the rocks, causing the starfish to move to other habitats.

c. the starfish were competing directly with the mussels for food, and removing the starfish

allowed the mussels more access to the food.

d. starfish feed on mussels, so when the starfish were removed the mussels no longer had a

predator and their populations grew unchecked.

Option D, Starfish feed on mussels, so when the starfish were removed the mussels no longer had a predator and their

populations grew unchecked.

Explanation:

In any ecological cycle, population growth of one organism is dependent on population of interconnected organisms.

Thus, for any organism A, if the food (or the population of organism on which it feed upon) increases then the population of organism A will increase while on the other hand if the population of predator is increased the population of organism A will decreases.

Here, Starfish is a predator to mussel and thus when the population of starfish is  reduced, the population of mussels has increased.

Hence, option  D is correct