The 2% of the insects will begin to reproduce and grow their population exponentially and in time enable the population to recover. This is if the population is large enough to enable random mating. The 98% reduction in population drastically reduces competition for the remaining individuals hence giving them abundant resources for them to thrive.
The stage that scientists begin to ask questions and attempt to explain observations is A. forming hypotheses. This is because a hypothesis is basically a testable question about observations scientists make.
The correct answer is A. Quantitative traits
Explanation:
In genetics, quantitative traits refer to traits or phenotypes (observable traits) that depend on many factors including multiple genes and actions in the environment. These traits differ from other traits because the traits tend to be more diverse in a population. In the case presented, the shell color in clams is an example of a quantitative trait because this phenotype is the result of three different each and each gene contains two alleles which means the color depends on many factors. Additionally, as most quantitative traits there is a higher variation in the phenotype considering clams can have different hues.
Sediment; There is a source of heat that was not included in the question to create all the other choices.
