Question

Our field biologist, Jackie Sharpe, proposed a hypothesis that stated that coral disease was to blame for the damage to the reef system. She went to each reef and gathered samples and recorded data. Which statement best describes how Jackie’s data relates to her hypothesis?

Answer 1

A.If we analyze all of the data that Jackie gathered about the damage to each individual reef in the system we discover that there was a small amount of damage to most reefs in the system and major damage to one reef in the system. This supports Jackie’s hypothesis.

B.The data showed that there was disease in the area and that it did cause some reef damage. However, overall there was only one reef that had significant damage caused by disease. The data did not support Jackie’s hypothesis because it could not show that the major damage to the reef system was caused by coral disease.

C.The data showed that there was disease on every reef in the system. This data supported Jackie’s hypothesis because we can conclude that the major damage in the reef system must be caused by disease.

D.The data showed that there was only one reef in the system that had a significant amount of damage from disease. There were also a number of different diseases in the area. Based on this information we can say that the data supp