Question

If the top-level consumers were eliminated from a food web, would the populations in the levels below them increase without bounds? why or why not?

Answer 1

If the top-level consumers were eliminated from a food web, the populations in the levels below them  would increase.  The levels below the top-level consumers would increase in number because there would not be any organisms to eat them.

Answer 2

When top-level consumers are remove from a food web, the populations below them will increase in number because there would not be any organisms to eat them. The organisms below the top-level consumer has the tendency to become over-populated.

Moreover, in a food web, each organism occupies a different level and the top-level consumer are called Apex consumer.