Corals are colonial marine invertebrates belonging to a larg - GED Prep
Question
Corals are colonial marine invertebrates belonging to a large group of colourful and fascinating animals of the class Anthozoa and of the phylum Cnidaria. They have lived rocks and coral reefs with other animals such as fish for over 500 million years now.
Over the last few years, scientists have discovered an increase in coral that are covered by algae in marine environment, resulting to the decline of coral reefs. Indeed, over 80% of coral reefs have died in the last few decades. This decline has been attributed to pollution and overfishing and they encourage the growth of algae on coral reefs. This has caused immense disruption to the marine ecosystem.
The scientists suspect that the algae are introducing diseases into the coral reefs and they therefore decide to expose the Caribbean coral (Porites astreoides) to 5 species of algae for 10 weeks. Results of this study revealed a significant reduction in bacteria that feed the corals and supply antibiotics against diseases and introduced new microbes to animals. This led to an introduction of diseases on coral reefs. The algae reduced the growth rate of corals by 37%.
The solution for managing the algae overgrowth is to reduce pollution and overfishing. Pollution of water ways introduces nitrogen and phosphorus that allow algae to grow and thrive beyond control. Overfishing on the other hand reduces the number of large fish that consume the algae.
Which statement is the hypothesis the researchers tested in this investigation?
Answers
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Explanation
The correct answer is that an alga introduces diseases into coral reefs resulting into their reduced growth rate. This is supported in the passage when the scientists introduced the Caribbean coral to 5 species of algae for 10 weeks. The presence of this algae led to a reduction in the coral reefs’ growth rate of 37%.
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