Question

text 1
what factors influence the abundance of species in a given ecological community?
some theorists have argued that historical diversity is a major driver of how
diverse an ecological community eventually becomes; differences in community
diversity across otherwise similar habitats, in this view, are strongly affected by
the number of species living in those habitats at earlier times.
text 2
in 2010, a group of researchers including biologist carla cáceres created artificial
pools in a new york forest. they stocked some pools with a diverse mix of
zooplankton species and others with a single zooplankton species and allowed the
pool communities to develop naturally thereafter. over the course of four years,
cáceres and colleagues periodically measured the species diversity of the pools,
finding—contrary to their expectations—that by the end of the study there was
little to no difference in the pools species diversity.
4 mark for review
based on the texts, how would cáceres and colleagues (text 2) most likely describe
the view of the theorists presented in text 1?
a it is largely correct, but it requires a minor refinement in light of
the research teams results.
b it is not compelling as a theory regardless of any experimental
data collected by the research team.
c it may seem plausible, but it is not supported by the research
teams findings.
d it probably holds true only in conditions like those in the research
teams study.

Explanation:

Text 1 presents a theory that historical diversity drives species abundance in ecological communities. Text 2 describes an experiment by Cáceres and colleagues where they expected historical diversity (diverse - single zooplankton stocking) to affect species diversity in pools, but found little to no difference. This means the theory in Text 1 is not supported by their findings.

Answer:

C. It may seem plausible, but it is not supported by the research team's findings.