hard · SAT Reading & Writing

Conservationists hypothesize that native plant diversity recovers rapidly in the first few years after invasive species are removed from a plot, then stabilizes as the plot approaches its long-term carrying capacity. A bar graph titled "Native Plant Species Count by Year Since Invasive Removal" shows the following approximate bar heights, with years since removal on the horizontal axis and number of native species recorded per plot on the vertical axis (range 0 to 30): Year 0: 6 species Year 1: 11 species Year 2: 17 species Year 3: 24 species Year 4: 24 species Which choice most effectively uses data from the bar graph to support the conservationists' hypothesis about the pattern of native species recovery?

1. Because native species count reached 24 by Year 3, removing invasive species guarantees that any plot anywhere will fully recover its original pre-invasion biodiversity within three years.
2. Native species count climbed from 6 at Year 0 to 24 by Year 3, then held at 24 in Year 4, matching quick early growth that levels off as the plot nears capacity.
3. Native species count declined steadily from 24 species at Year 0 to 6 species at Year 4, showing that removing invasive species harmed native plant recovery over time.
4. At Year 0, immediately after removal, plots contained an average of 6 native plant species, the lowest count recorded on the graph.

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