Scientists have been studying the size of three populations in a river in Ireland. In this ecosystem, pike (a type of big fish), and perch eat snails. The data showed that all three populations were stable. Then the snail population increased suddenly. What will likely happen to the size of the perch population as a result? The size of the perch population will... Options:

A. Stay the same. The size of it's consumer population did not change, so the number of deaths in the perch population did not change. There will be the same number of births and deaths in the perch population.

B. Decrease. The larger snail population will take more energy storage molecules from the ecosystem, leaving fewer available for the perch population. This will lead to more deaths than births in the perch population.

C. Increase. The larger snail population will provide more energy storage molecules for the perch population, so they will reproduce more. This will lead to more births than deaths in the perch population.

D. Increase. An increase in any population within an ecosystem will lead to an increase in the sizes of all other populations in the ecosystem.