Self-study
Forest fragmentation occurs when development severs a continuous area of forest, breaking it down into small patches. ████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████████ █████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██████████████ ████████ █████ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████ ████████ █████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ █ ████████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████ ████████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██████
Summary
Forest fragmentation happens when development cuts large forests into smaller pieces. Some animals, like white-footed mice, thrive and multiply in these conditions. These mice are the main carrier of the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, which is passed to humans by deer ticks that bite the mice. Lyme disease is a debilitating illness.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Forest fragmentation can be beneficial for some animals.
Combatting forest fragmentation may decrease populations of white-footed mice.
Combatting forest fragmentation may lessen instances of Lyme disease among humans.
Combatting forest fragmentation can be beneficial for human health.
2.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
White-footed mice are ████ ██████ █████ ██ ████████████ ████████
This is unsupported. The stimulus only tells us that white-footed mice thrive in fragmented forests, but gives no information about their existence or wellbeing in unfragmented forests.
b
The population density ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ █████████ ████ █ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████████
This is unsupported. The stimulus only speaks to the population density of white-footed mice in fragmented forests. It gives no information about the population-density of any other species of small animals.
c
Forest fragmentation reduces ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████████
This is unsupported. The stimulus does not tell us about the effects of forest fragmentation on other animal species apart from white-footed mice or on the biodiversity of an area as a whole.
d
Efforts to stop ███ █████████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████
This is strongly supported. Stopping forest fragmentation can decrease the population density of white-footed mice, which carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Thus, it can have a beneficial effect on human health by reducing the risk of Lyme disease.
e
Deer ticks reach █████ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████ ████████
This is unsupported. We are told that white-footed mice reach their highest population densities in small forest patches. The only thing we know about deer ticks is that they can transmit Lyme disease.