Self-study
Since mosquito larvae are aquatic, outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases typically increase after extended periods of wet weather. ██ █████████ ██ ████ ███████████████ ████████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ██████████ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████ █████████ ██ ██████████████ ████████ ███ █████ █████ ███████ ██ ████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Mosquito-borne disease outbreaks typically increase after extended periods of wet weather, but in areas where mosquitoes breed primarily in wetland habitats, there tend to be more outbreaks after droughts.
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that describes a key difference between areas where mosquitoes breed primarily in wetland habitats and areas where mosquitoes breed primarily in other types of environments. That difference must explain why droughts create improved conditions for mosquito-borne disease in areas where breeding occurs in wetland habitats. This difference might relate to humans’ susceptibility to disease, mosquitoes’ disease carriage abilities, or mosquito birthrates under drought conditions in these areas.
17.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ █████████ ██████
a
The use of ████████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████████
This has nothing to do with droughts or wet periods—presumably, insecticides are prohibited regardless of weather conditions, so (A) doesn’t help explain the increased disease outbreaks that follow droughts in wetland habitats.
b
Human populations tend ██ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ █████████
This has nothing to do with droughts or wet periods, so it doesn’t help explain the increased disease outbreaks that follow droughts in wetland habitats.
c
Wetland habitats contain ████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████
If wetland habitats contain aquatic insects that eat mosquito larvae, it makes sense that periods of drought lead to more cases of mosquito-borne disease. These aquatic predators die or are weakend during droughts, allowing more larvae to hatch and grow into diseased mosquitoes.
d
Wetland habitats host █ █████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ██████████ ██████
This has nothing to do with droughts or wet periods, so it doesn’t help explain the increased disease outbreaks that follow droughts in wetland habitats.
e
Periods of drought ██ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████
We have no information about how new plant growth might or might not impact incidences of mosquito-borne disease, so this answer choice doesn’t help resolve the discrepancy at hand.