Read the Following Scenario and Answer the Question Below

question 17

Multiple Choice

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
The western United States contains a series of tall mountain ranges that also extend far down into Mexico. The largest of these ranges are the Rockies and the Sierra Madres, but they are all part of the same mountain -building event that occurred many millions of years ago, and they all have similar features. However, the biodiversity of the southernmost mountains has more connection to that of Central America, while the biodiversity of the Rockies shares more affinity with temperate North American species. Still, much of the forest vegetation on these mountaintops is the same, or very similar, and they are often referred to as the ʺSky Islandsʺ because of their similarity to each other and their isolation from the lower, often drier, areas surrounding them. With global climate change producing increasingly visible effects, conservation biologists fear that these mountaintop ecosystems will undergo major changes in temperature and humidity and that the many endemic species that live there may literally have no place to go.
-An effective strategy for protecting the endemic species of the Sky Islands could be to _____________.

• A) protect as many adjacent Sky Islands as possible, giving wildlife corridors to move between mountaintops
• B) introduce drought tolerant species into all the Sky Islands
• C) protect one large Sky Island at each end of the mountain chain and allow logging and development in the others
• D) protect the smallest Sky Islands and leave the rest open to logging and development
• E) prevent immigration and emigration between the Islands

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