Carla is studying the relationships among the organisms in a local nature preserve. Carla has made a drawing showing how the organisms in the nature preserve interact. To represent land plants, she has drawn a tuft of grass in her diagram. To represent water plants, she has drawn a type of algae. The organisms are not drawn to scale. Arrows connect organisms in a food web. Examples include a series of arrows from grass to raccoon to bobcat, from grass to muskrat to bobcat, and from algae to small fish to catfish to alligator. Carla’s food web provides evidence for which of these relationships in the ecosystem?

A. Because small fish consume shrimp, the small fish would die without a healthy shrimp population.
B. Because bobcats consume animals only, they do not depend on the plants and algae of the ecosystem.
C. Because bobcats consume raccoons, bobcats act as a limiting factor on the raccoon population.
D. Because catfish consume shrimp, catfish act as a limiting factor on the shrimp population.
E. Because bobcats are the top predator of the ecosystem, none of the other organisms act as a limiting factor of the bobcat population.