|Question 9Verbal

Source Texts

Text
In a 2024 study, Corrine Walsh and colleagues examined whether the composition of soil microbial communities could affect plants’ flavor chemistry. Whereas Baslam et al. (2011) showed that adding specific bacterial or fungal strains to soil can yield increased flavonoid content in spinach crops, Walsh and team applied intact microbial communities gathered from ecologically distinct settings across Colorado, including areas of ponderosa pine forest and irrigated pasture, to mustard plants and evaluated the flavor compounds in the plants’ seeds. This ensured that the microbial conditions in their experiment would better reflect the variation and complexity of naturally occurring communities.
Based on the text, what is the most likely reason Walsh and colleagues chose to avoid the method used in the spinach study?
The composition of microorganisms in the soil in the spinach study may not have been representative of a naturally existing composition.
A
The microbial community in the soil from the spinach study affected plants’ nutrition, not their flavor chemistry.
B
The spinach study's method required more resources and time than Walsh and colleagues had available for their experiment.
C
The bacterial and fungal strains used in the spinach study were not compatible with the mustard plants Walsh and colleagues studied.
D