Question

lady grant and colleagues ___ pots of sterilized soil with slurries of live microbes collected from soil in five sites across colorado, including areas of sagebrush and ponderosa pine forest. grant and team then grew mustard plants in the pots to see if the different microbial slurries affected levels of spicy glucosinolates like butenyl in the plants seeds. which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? a. precluded b. estimated c. sanitized d. populated

Explanation:

The context is about adding live - microbe slurries to sterilized soil pots. "Populated" means to inhabit or fill with organisms, which is appropriate here as they are adding microbes to the soil. "Precluded" means to prevent something from happening, "estimated" is about making a calculation or judgment of the value or amount, and "sanitized" means to make something clean or free from germs (but the soil is already sterilized and they are adding microbes, not making it cleaner in a sanitizing sense).

Answer:

D. populated