Use the information and your knowledge of science to answer the question.

in the gulf of mexico, seagrass meadows are nurseries for many young animals. polychaetes are a type of invertebrate that lives on seagrass and provides food to many of the animals that live in the seagrass meadows.

to study the effect of predators on different species of polychaetes, scientists divided four large fish tanks into two halves. seagrasses containing different species of polychaetes were placed into both halves of all four fish tanks. a predator was placed into only one of the two halves in each of the four fish tanks. after a few days, the scientists counted the total number of polychaetes in each half of the tank.

next, the scientists counted the number of polychaete species in each half of the tank. the results are shown in the table.

based on the information in the graph and the table, how has competition among predators affected species diversity in seagrass meadows in the gulf of mexico?

question 1 options:

a. over time, pink shrimp have adapted to eat a wider variety of prey species compared to other predator species.
b. over time, blue crab have adapted to eat more of their diet in polychaetes compared to other predator species.
c. over time, the number of pink shrimp has decreased and the number of pinfish has decreased.
d. over time, the number of grass shrimp has decreased and the number of blue crab has increased.